Ceremony of Innocence
by y3k
Summary: When the Venjix virus was unleashed, an entire civilization died. Thousands of years of history, culture, and society went up in smoke, carried on only by a small handful of surviving fortress colonies scattered and isolated from one another. It was the worst disaster in Earth's history, and one no-one saw coming. The year is 2132, and this is the story of how the world ends.
1. Business as Usual

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** _So back in like, 2009 when RPM was a thing, I came up with this idea and got a few chapters in before the season's internal chronology regarding Venjix's takeover kind of made me scratch my head and caused me to lose interest. But now I'm back, and this is the first stage of a little project of mine. …Actually, that's a lie. It's a really large project. BUT ANYWAY._

_This fic goes with the old (now defunct) theory that RPM takes place in the early 22nd century of the 'prime' PR universe—but that still works for me because I don't count New!Saban in my personal headcanon anyway (and even if I did, parallel timelines, bitches). What I'm saying is, I don't want whining about the timetables or shit like that. Think of this as a thought experiment._

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER ONE – BUSINESS AS USUAL**

_"…Experts remain in the dark as to the origins of the so-called 'Venjix' worm that continues to plague tech specialists across the world. It has infected over sixty percent of all computer systems and has eluded all attempts to eradicate it over the course of the last two years. While it has proven harmless in execution, it has revealed numerous security flaws in modern operating systems, and scientists remain wary of its ability to adapt._

_In other news, Alpine City has been once again saved by our very own home-grown heroes, the Power Rangers…"_

* * *

><p>The smell of smoke and the sound of screams punctuated the air of Alpine City. Civilians scurried away from the city's central plaza as some large humanoid crab…thing shuffled about. It gave a roar and fired another laser blast at a nearby shop, causing the storefront to explode violently. About to give another roar in satisfaction, its attention was suddenly redirected to a new sound emerging from the distance somewhere behind it. The crab turned to see four color-themed motorcycles approaching, each carrying a color-coordinated rider. The beast gave another roar—its prey was finally here.<p>

The four motorcycles came to a halt a few yards away, at which point the full-suited colored riders got off and raced over to the creature on foot. There were four; red, blue, yellow, and green. Three were male; the yellow was female, while green seemed fancier than the others; sporting golden armor on his chest, wrists, and boots.

"Alright, Crabs Ahoy. Fun times are over" the red one, the leader said, pointing at the monster for emphasis. The crab growled in malcontent. "Ready guys?"

"Ready!" came the unison reply.

"Red Rhino Beetle!" shouted red, taking a pose.

"Blue Stag Beetle!" blue did likewise.

"Yellow Ladybug Beetle!"

"Green Atlas Beetle!"

"Power Rangers! Exoforce!" they yelled together, their poses falling into a synchronized fashion.

The monster snorted before howling again, obviously incensed. It charged at its new opponents, who wisely got out of the way as it slammed into the nearest building with its large razor claws.

"Zoe, Drew, keep it occupied!" red shouted before motioning to green, "Ryan, you're with me".

"Why do we always have to keep it busy?" Drew asked, as red lead Ryan away from the fight.

Zoe threw herself in front of Drew, her blaster out and aimed at the enemy, "Less talking, more shooting. Come on!" she opened fire with a barrage of yellow lasers. Drew quickly joined her, taking his weapon out of its holster and issuing bolts of blue energy at the crab monster. The combined assault didn't seem to be doing much; the crab's exoskeleton was sparking, but the monster only continued to shuffle towards them menacingly.

"Because of course they don't have any effect. Why would they start now?" Drew muttered as he and Zoe stopped shooting and switched their weapons to blade mode.

"Plan B then!" Zoe exclaimed, as she and Drew charged the monster.

Ryan watched the battle unfold from behind a pillar a bit of a ways from the fight. He turned to red, "So uh, Mark. Plan?"

Mark shifted his weapon into blade mode, "We take him from behind while distracted. Hopefully they can injure or stagger him a bit first. After that, you keep it busy while we get the cannon. Be ready to charge on my mark"

Ryan nodded and pulled out his own twin blasters, and quickly combined them into a lance. "Ready when you are"

Mark eyed the battlefield. Yellow and blue had just landed another round of blows on the creature, keeping it off-balance as one would strike from one direction, and just when the crab would come after them the other would hit from another direction. The two kept circling the monster like a pack of wolves. Mark was pleased; the training sessions were paying off. Ryan of course hadn't been with him long enough for the on-the-fly plan synchronization to kick in, so he was having to explain a bit more than usual.

"Now!" Mark shouted, racing off towards the monster. Ryan followed him. Both rangers powered up their weapons, the blades glowing with red and green energy. The crab tossed aside Drew and Zoe just in time to turn and fall victim to the two rangers flying by and cutting their swords into its hide. Sparks flew as green and red spun back around and landed another synchronized blow, before kicking the monster away. The crab stumbled, and Mark took it as his cue to get the others together.

Ryan grasped his lance and charged again, landing a few more hits before the crab turned the tables by grabbing his weapon with one claw, and smashing into him with another. The green ranger rolled away, before rebounding and blocking the next attack.

"Ryan, now!" Mark shouted. Ryan instinctively leapt out of the way as the other three rangers hoisted their cannon and aimed at the creature. "Fire!"

A beam of multicolored lights slammed into the crab. It resisted for a moment, but its shell could only take so much before it was simply overwhelmed. The monster staggered, sparked, and fell over. As it's shell hit the ground, its husk lit up like a batch of fireworks, erupting in a flash of light and thunder. The four rangers turned to pose, confident in their victory.

"Well, that was fun" Zoe said, leaning her sword over her shoulder. "But I gotta get home. If I'm late again, mom is gonna kill me" she waved vaguely at the setting sun.

Another flash of light and thunder followed, causing the rangers to turn back at the remains of the crab. Within seconds, the monster had reformed and grown forty stories.

"Oh, right. We missed that step" Drew said, deadpan.

Zoe sighed in resignation, "Ugh, fine. Let's just hurry this part up".

Mark drew his wrist morpher to his mouth, "Khepri, it's zord time".

Another short moment, and four gigantic insect robots rumbled into the city. Each of the rangers leapt up into the sky, flying into their respective cockpits, and together they piloted their ultimate weapons into battle against the giant crab monster.

"Megazord!" Mark ordered, sliding his morpher into the control console. The others did likewise. Almost immediately, the rhino beetle, stag beetle, and ladybug beetle zords began to shift and transform. Ladybug lengthened and split, forming legs and a lower torso. Rhino bent back, forming a chest and head. Stag opened up and unfolded, becoming the robot's back and arms. Stag and Rhino's horns created a staff, while a crown from Ladybug slide onto the Megazord's head. The earth shook and splintered around the newly formed weapon of war as it swung its weapon around in triumphant glory.

The Atlas Insectizord, however, began to contort on its own, sliding into its own humanoid battle formation. Its twin horns became two short swords, while the last horn rotated to the back, allowing a new headdress to fold up onto the Megazord's head.

The two metallic titans struck a pose, ready to do battle for the future of Alpine City. When the crab opened fire with another barrage, the two behemoths went on the attack, ignoring the assault as they closed in and double-punched the crab. Sparks were created on impact as the crab stepped back, before cutting into the robots with its claws.

Inside the cockpit of the Exoforce Megazord, everything shuddered from the impact of the blow. Drew struggled to keep his hands on the controls, "Those claws are pretty nasty; it's giving us some serious dents".

"Auxiliary zord time?" asked Zoe, as they prepared to block another strike.

Mark nodded, "Do it".

The crab turned and smashed into the Atlas Insectizord head-first, causing it some serious damage as it crashed into a building and fell to the pavement below. It then swung around back to the Exoforce…but only to come face to face with a new weapon. The Exoforce had attached a Dragonfly zord, which became a rather large propeller blade for the right arm. The propellers cut into the crab's hide, allowing for the left arm—now sporting a large hornet-themed cannon, to fire into the beast at point-blank range. The monster's hide erupted as it roared in pain, shuffling back before falling over.

"Yeah!" Zoe shouted, pumping her fist into the air in victory, "Suck on that, you overgrown seafood dinner!"

By now the Atlas had gotten back on its feet.

"Don't leave me out" Ryan smiled faintly, as he followed suit and summoned some auxillary zords for his own machine. A giant robotic firefly settled on its left arm, while a praying mantis zord covered its right. The Atlas unleashed several bolts of electrical energy at the monster just as the beast had gotten back onto its feet, followed by a charged up cut from the mantis scissors. "Finish him, guys!"

"Exoforce, final strike!" the other three rangers cried in unison. The Exoforce, which had shifted back to its original configuration, grasped its staff and swung it around, powering the weapon up as it thrust it down for a final attack. The blade cut clean through the monster and the Megazord ripped it back out and spun around, striking another pose with the Atlas Insectiazord, as the crab monster toppled over and exploded once again—basking the now-moonlit city in the momentary glow of daytime.

* * *

><p>"Well…that happened".<p>

The large and heavy scorpion monster turned to the one who had just spoken, a much thinner female wasp humanoid.

"That was less than acceptable" the scorpion said in agreement, his voice slow and deep. Both watched the crystal ball in front of them as the Megazord stood in victory over the corpse of its opponent. The orb sat on an altar comprised of a bundle of roots in the center of the tunnel-like chamber, which seemed to almost seamlessly meld into the floor at the base. The room was full of organic curves and crevices and twisted roots winding about in a chaotic mess, like some kind of underground burrow—a home fit for bugs. The only lighting was from numerous small, orange crystals attached to the walls by the roots in an asymmetric fashion, casting a dim amber glow with long shadows on the rest of the chamber.

She snorted in contempt as she folded her arms, "'less than acceptable'? How about we try better words, like 'pathetic' or 'depressing as all get out'? They crushed that thing in under three minutes. ROLLY, YOU IDIOT!" she turned and shouted down the corridor from the main chamber. A moment later, a large ball-like object rolled into the room, before unfolding into a large and humanoid wood louse—'large' in this case being relative, as he barely came up to the others' waistline.

"I told you it wasn't ready!" Rolly replied indignity, "Only the barest essentials and the exoskeleton had been grown! It didn't even have a conscious mind, just animal instinct! You're too impatient!"

"Feh" the wasp brushed him off, turning away in contempt.

However, the louse wasn't ready to quit yet, "You never listen to me!"

"Enough" boomed another voice. At the far end of the chamber lay a rather large throne of rock and root, and on it sat a rather large and imposing figure, his appearance very reminiscent of a prehistoric trilobite. He stood up and began to make his way over to group.

"Lord Trill, my apologies" the wasp said, diminishing.

"No need, Waspawn" Trill replied as he leaned on the table, watching the orb intently, "However, you and Scorpiking have given me an idea. Rolly, how many monsters can you make on short notice? They don't need to be full-fledged masterpieces, just capable of keeping the rangers busy".

"Sir?" Scorpiking asked.

Trill chuckled to himself, "Let me ask you something, Scorpiking. What's more annoying than a gnat?"

"Er…"

"A thousand gnats" Trill continued, "All we need to do is keep the rangers so occupied with monsters they don't have time to do anything else. No time for class, or sleep, or family. We can simply break them by outlasting them".

"Brilliant, sir" Scorpiking said.

"Yes, it is, isn't it?" Trill replied, quite amused with himself.

Rolly thought for a moment, "With a proper prototype, I could mass-produce a monster. Maybe something that absorbs and studies their attacks".

"Making each one the rangers face more powerful than the last" Waspawn finished for him, "The more the rangers destroy, the more they hasten their own demise" she laughed, intensely amused by the idea.

"Brilliant" Trill said, "How long?"

Rolly seemed to do some calculations in his head, "A day or two to build the prototype. I need to experiment on the genome types a bit to get the effect we desire. After that, well, as many as you need. All I need are the resources to build them. It should only take a few hours to grow a new batch of clones"

Trill nodded, "Then do it. I shall make sure you have all the materials you require".

Rolly cackled as he folded back up into his ball form and rolled away, deeper into the burrow.

"Finally" Trill hit the altar with his fist, "The Anthropod race will return to its former glory, and the species of man will once again be subject to our whims!"

* * *

><p>"Hail the conquering heroes!" Drew shouted triumphantly, as he, Mark, and Ryan entered the small base with a wide grin on his face, "These monsters keep getting easier and easier".<p>

The base was actually just a hidden room in the local high school, a science lab forgotten by time because 'no one had ever bothered to look', as Khepri had explained, though the rangers somehow doubted there hadn't been magic involved. Still, regardless of how it happened, the base was seemingly safe from outsiders; no one had even come close to the hidden room, and even after hours they didn't have an issue getting here, thanks to the secret entrance outside. Though, Ryan would always privately note the irony of trying to break INTO the school during off-hours.

The lab itself was just that, a high school science lab, though its equipment was notably more advanced (and claustrophobic) than your average classroom. A single table sat in the center of the room, surrounded by numerous high-tech instruments and computers, as well as a collection of holographic interfaces with which to control everything.

"Don't get cocky" said a new voice. A small scarab-like creature emerged from a nest of sorts on a waist-high pillar and hopped onto the table—'small' being a relative size here, as he was actually about the size of a puppy.

Ryan backed Drew up, "Oh come on, Khepri, these Anthropods are pushovers. Did you see that crab? Went down in like, two punches".

"They enthralled you for two weeks just fine" the beetle deadpanned. When Ryan seemed chastened enough, he continued with the group as a whole, "Never underestimate your opponent. Perhaps all they want is for you to let your guard down. Or perhaps there's a more sinister plot in the works".

"Khepri's right" said Mark, "We should always be vigilant. And we've been slacking with the training sessions since Ryan joined. We need to tighten that up".

Drew rolled his eyes as he sat down at one of the computer consoles, "Of course *you* think we need to up our workload. You wouldn't know what to do if we had a day off".

"What are you doing?" asked Ryan, leaning against the counter.

Drew didn't look up from the computer screen as he typed, "Just checking the news. I do that".

Mark seemed willing to let the comment about his work ethic die, "Anything in particular?"

Drew ignored them for a moment before responding, "…yeah, actually. I just like to keep track of that worm that's been infecting everything".

Ryan thought for a moment, "…the…Venjix bug? Didn't they fix that?"

"It keeps coming back. Every time they think they have a fix, it adapts, almost like it's self-aware" Mark shrugged, "Not that it's doing anything. It's been swimming around the net for how many years now, and it hasn't caused any damage?"

Drew finally looked away from the screen, towards Mark, "Yeah, but it's growing. You're the field tactician here; you tell me what happens when an enemy gains total control of something".

"Yeah, I mean, why would they do any damage before taking over everything?" asked Ryan.

"…Total supremacy" Khepri breathed to himself, "Hmm. Maybe I should look into this more. It would be just like an Anthropod plot".

"Didn't the Venjix worm appear way before the Anthropods woke up?" asked Mark. Khepri seemed to ponder this, before agreeing. Mark continued, "I'm sure it's just some joke by a couple of college kids. They probably got a real laugh out of it before getting bored with the whole thing, and now it's just out there without a master".

Drew sighed, deferring to the team leader, "I sure hope you're right".

* * *

><p>It was late. She hated being late. Or rather, her mother hated her being late, and that would trickle down to her hating being late because now her life was going to be hell.<p>

Ugh.

Zoe crept through her bedroom window, having shimmied up the side of the house to the second floor. She remembered the first time she did this this she had tried using the gutter, which had earned her nothing but a bruised body and a broken gutter. Thankfully, she had managed to convince her dad it was squirrels. Now she just used a combination of the vine fence, the back porch roof, and her superhuman knowledge of martial arts.

Tonight however, she wasn't as lucky. As she slid open her window and crawled inside, her bedroom light turned on, seemingly by itself. There, on the side of her bed, sat her mom, looking very cross. "And exactly what part of 'eight o'clock curfew' don't you understand?"

Zoe stood up in a single movement. She was in deep trouble and she knew it; the inevitable downside of being a superhero. "Um…oops?"

"Where have you been?" her mother asked, her voice even, controlled.

She decided to go for the 'awkwardly adorable and innocent' plan of attack, scratching the back of her head in flustered embarrassment, "I uh…sorry, mom. I just lost track of the time. I—"

"Where?" her mother said, cutting her off as her voice gained a little more venom.

Zoe sighed. Oh boy, "…Out with friends. We were at the plaza" well, TECHNICALLY that had been true, at least. She just hoped her mother hadn't heard about the giant humanoid crab rampaging around downtown.

"You didn't answer your phone when I called" her mother continued. Her arms were crossed, allowing her finger to tap on her arm almost subconsciously, "There was an attack downtown, how was I supposed to know you were safe!?" her voice began to rise a bit. This was going to get ugly.

Well, shit.

"I know the drill, mom" Zoe huffed impatiently, "We've practiced monster attacks for like, forever. I'm not going to get stomped on. Did you know the statistics for that are really low any—"

Her mother waved her off, "You don't need to be stepped on to be hurt! What if a building fell down, or debris, or something else? A monster attack is a *warzone*, Zoe. They keep people away from battle sites for a *reason*"

"Sorry mom" Zoe grunted, defeated. She knew she had no real defense other than admitting to her secret life, and that just wouldn't do—though the thought had definitely crossed her mind on occasion.

"I needed you to take care of your little brother while I ran some errands. I didn't get them done because you were busy ignoring your phone and getting into danger" it was clear her mother had actually been hurt by this. Shiiiit.

Zoe sighed again, a little bit of guilt creeping in, "Sorry mom, I'll be here next time".

Her mother stood up, crossing her arms in front of her. Her voice became less angry and passionate, and more steely, "Yes, you will. Because you're grounded for a month"

"I—a month—what?!" Zoe shouted in shock. That wasn't good! That was bad!

"SHHH!" her mother screeched while still whispering, "Your brother is SLEEPING!"

"But that's not fair!" Zoe whined. Working to save the world every night, and she couldn't even get an ounce of respect. Not that her mom KNEW, but that just made it worse somehow! "You can't just do that!"

"If I can't get ahold of you or trust you to be safe out there, then you can't be running about with your friends; seems perfectly fair to me" said her mom.

"Why don't you just ever trust me?!" Zoe shot back. She knew she had lost at this point, but well, points for being defiant, she figured. It was the principle of the thing. "You're always looking for a reason to punish me!"

There was a brief bout of silence before her mother continued, anger beginning to slip through again, "Your grades have been in freefall since the start of the year. Your senior year, Zoe. The year colleges look at. You don't ever answer your phone, you don't ever come home when you're supposed to…what am I supposed to think, Zoe? How am I supposed to trust you if you can't abide by any of the rules in this house?"

Zoe was silent. She so badly wanted to just morph, right then and there. This wasn't fair.

"One month, and that's final" her mother locked eyes with her for a moment, before she turned and left, shutting Zoe's bedroom door behind her.

"That's not—UGH!" Zoe threw one of her pillows at the wall in a fit of sudden ineffectual rage, before dropping on her bed in mid-tantrum. Sometimes being a superhero sucked really hard.

* * *

><p>There was always a bit of a stigma being the Smart Guy of the class.<p>

Well, no. Stigma's not the right word. Expectation?

Drew was always expected to do well in class; to be at the top of the grading curve. He was smart and everyone knew it; he was always tinkering with computers and machines and experiments-and pranks. And it didn't help that both of his older brothers were pretty extraordinary themselves—one at a high-ranking ivy league university, the other running a successful start-up tech business.

Maybe that was why Drew rebelled. He didn't put much effort into school, it was boring and he just had better things to do with his time—like learning how to balance a pencil on his nose. Unfortunately, his teachers never seemed to understand, and were always begging him to 'apply himself'.

Meh.

Maybe later he'd fill Mr. Sands' lecture powerpoint with dick pics, just to teach him a lesson. Sure, the teacher would probably tell his parents, but Drew kind of liked watching them squirm. They never knew what to do with Drew, being the bad apple of the bunch.

"Hey"

"Hm?" Drew was snapped out of his train of thought by Mark, who slid into the seat next to him at the otherwise empty lunch table.

"Training at five this afternoon at the park. You in?" Mark asked as he took a bite out of his food.

Drew sighed, "…Do I have to?" he asked, a little exasperated. This would be the third training exercise this week, and he was tired. "I mean, we *did* just wipe the floor with a monster last night without breaking a sweat. I'd say we're well ahead of the curve. Some downtime is in order"

When the team had first formed, Drew and Mark had not gotten along at all. As far as Drew was concerned, Mark was the perfect All-Star-American-Boy: top student, captain of the basketball team, red ranger, loved apple pie and freedom; the whole shebang. It was sickening. What was worse was his stringent no-nonsense attitude; Mark didn't…appreciate the humor and antics Drew brought to the table. He led his team, both as captain and as the red ranger, as a general would lead his troops.

Yaaaaaaaay.

Yet, somehow, it worked. The two rangers didn't always see eye-to-eye (or even usually), but they had managed to build up a begrudging respect for each other on the battlefield over the last few months. When in his element, Mark was a force of nature, and somehow complimented Drew's patented improvisation perfectly. Drew had even gotten him to laugh once or twice—truly, a victory worth savoring.

"Just because we got lucky last time because the Anthropods got sloppy doesn't mean we can let our guard down" Mark replied, because of course he thought that way. Ugh. "We're the only defense this city has against the bad guys".

Drew snorted as he began playing with one of the cheese cubes on his tray, "Oh yeah. Y'know, except for *Them*"

His companion rolled his eyes, "Please don't make this about SPD".

SPD, Space Patrol Delta. The self-declared combined military and civilian police force of The Alliance, they had honorably served the member worlds for well over a century, keeping Earth and her fellow allies safe in a universe full of Evil Space Alien Monarchs and other demonic forces. No one on Aquitar, or Triforia, or KO-35, or dozens upon dozens of other worlds had had any reason to fear the dark in well over a generation—possibly for the first time since the days of the Morphin Masters at the dawn of time.

…At least, that was the line SPD spouted, and the line Mark towed with him. It was certainly a nice fairy tale. Drew, however, knew better—even if Mark refused to listen. It was always the same argument; Drew would present some article about a new protest breaking out or SPD cracking down on innocent civilians, Mark would counter that he shouldn't trust 'underground' news sites, Drew would counter-counter that the 'main' news sources were all sanitized by SPD like the totalitarian dictatorship they were, and the cycle would continue.

Drew's dad had told him it hadn't always been like this; when he was a boy The Alliance had been a lot more benevolent. Sure, the police and military had been a combined force even back then, and SPD had never had a democratic concept of a trial by jury (instead preferring to convict on the spot using advanced technology), but freedom had been a lot looser—it had been more of a velvet glove. Now…not so much. The news sources Drew paid attention to (and after this long he knew which ones to pay attention to and which ones not to) made a clear correlation between the tightening of SPD's grip and the restlessness of its member worlds. When KO-35 had sought to break way, the Alliance simply replaced their entire government and declared new elections—making sure only parties they authorized to be registered were eligible. When the United Nations tried to reassert themselves, SPD simply bypassed them, administering the local countries of Earth directly. Yet it was a vicious cycle—the more The Alliance tried to maintain their grip, the more the various worlds wished to be free.

"I'm just saying" Drew said, continuing to play with the cheese cube—food in this school was suspect—"You're so fond of them. Surely they'd come to our protection. Unless, y'know, they're busy with those riots"

Mark sighed after a moment, before leaning back in his seat, looking up. He placed his hands behind his head as a cushion. His voice was quieter, more reflective now, "…Those reports, about the riots in New Tech City and…elsewhere, I guess".

"…Yeah?" Drew stopped fooling with his cube and turned slightly towards his teammate. Wait…was Mark actually taking his 'crack pot theories' seriously? Could he have actually gotten through to Mark?

"I'm just saying" Mark seemed to get his voice back as he sat back up, "We can't always depend on others to save us. Sometimes we need to pick up the slack ourselves. And that means training".

Drew shrugged, fair enough. Though the implications didn't escape him; "…You…uh, think war could ever be a thing?" he asked, a little more quiet himself now.

The two rangers glanced at each other, and then at what was left of their food. Silence reigned for a moment. It was one thing to debate far off events like a riot in New Tech City, or a war on Triforia-those were just, y'know, news; stories adults told each other so they could get angry and argue with each other. It was all supposed to be theoretical, not an immediate upheaval of everything they knew. The idea that their entire world could get thrown upside down by forces out of their control seemed so alien, so distant and unlikely, and yet here they were thinking about it. They were rangers; the only problems they were supposed to deal with were homework and giant monsters. Not…politics. Everything felt a little bit closer to home now, especially with graduation coming. They wouldn't be kids fighting giant rubber bugs forever.

"…I'm sure the Power Rangers could take care of it" Mark said at last, a bit of a knowing smirk on his face as he looked at his teammate.

A small, dry chuckle escaped Drew's lips, "Yeah, but which ones?"

More silence settled over the two teenagers as they continued to meddle with their food; neither one really hungry anymore. Which ones indeed.

* * *

><p>"She doesn't give me any benefit of the doubt! It's not like I've ever knocked over a grocery store or anything! I've never killed anyone!"<p>

"Well thank goodness for that, then" Ryan said dryly. He was only keeping as much attention on Zoe's ranting as he absolutely needed to keep her from getting angry at *him*. *He* was trying to get schoolwork done in the secret lab; the hidden location made it a great place during lunch to do that.

Well, usually.

"She treats me like I'm twelve! I'm not some little defenseless girl! I have a life and obligations!"

Ryan sighed. He really *was* trying to concentrate on his biology homework. Sure, he probably should have done it last night when he was supposed to, but hey, the sacrifices he had to make to defend the city. He looked over at Khepri's nest, where the beetle creature was curled up and napping happily, oblivious to the world. The green ranger wouldn't be getting any help from his mentor this time.

"Why can't she see that she's smothering me!?"

…She still wasn't done ranting. Was she even breathing? He couldn't tell if she was stopping to inhale or not.

He liked Zoe, really he did. After the other rangers had broken the evil spell the Anthropods had cast over him, he had originally intended to fight alone, apart from the others. Zoe however, had offered her friendship—one of the few real friends he had ever had. Even though Mark and Drew had taken much larger to warm up to their former enemy, Zoe's forgiveness and hospitality had ensured Ryan's place on the team. Since then he had fought hard to make the others respect him, and to hold himself up to Zoe's beliefs about him. He wouldn't let her down.

…It also helped that he had also developed something of a crush for the yellow ranger. But for all that was holy, she was bugging the crap out of him today.

"…This country was built on the idea of freedom! I'm not going to just…"

And his mother wondered why he wrote so many angsty poems.

* * *

><p>It was late when Mark got home. Training had been a pretty great success as usual; even Ryan was finally starting to blend in with the team. He had kept the green ranger at arm's length until recently, but Mark was finally starting to warm up to the kid. Objectively knew the whole Evil Ranger business hadn't been Ryan's fault, but it was still hard to feel casual around the guy. He was always looking over his shoulder, waiting to be betrayed. And there was just some residual anger over the whole thing; every time he saw Ryan's face, all he could think about was all the evil things he had done while under the control of the Anthropods.<p>

Ugh.

"Dude, Mark. You gotta see this".

The red ranger turned to see his younger brother bouncing into the entryway, pointing back at the family room where the main screen sat on the wall. Mark allowed his brother to lead him in, where his parents were already sitting on the couch.

"What's up?" asked Mark, dropping down at the end of the sofa.

His father noted his presence as he sat down, "The news. Something's up with the Venjix worm" he said, pressing the remote to unpause the video stream.

_"….For those of you just joining us, the Venjix Virus has just revealed itself to be a sentient being, requesting a meeting with SPD and the UN. Alliance representatives are arriving in the UN council chambers as we speak. This is history in the making, folks, a brand new lifeform making first contact with us. Truly, remarkable!"_


	2. What Rough Beast

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER TWO: WHAT ROUGH BEAST**

The next few minutes of Mark's life unfolded almost in slow-motion. One moment he was watching the UN's address to the Venjix entity on the couch with his family. The next, there was chaos, panic, confusion. It was as if the Secretary-General just…dissolved into nothing. He screamed for a moment as his body evaporated, and then…nothing. Dust.

The sundering swept through the chambers, ripping everyone apart. Screams filled the room before being drowned out by oppressive silence. With no one to turn off the cameras, they just kept rolling, watching the empty room of dust, and that eye on the screen. The ever present blood-red computer eye.

_"Let this be a message. The time of your species is over. The age of Venjix begins now!"_

It was at this point that the crew at the news station seemed to regain a fraction of their mental capacity and turned off the feed, returning to their set, though it was clear they were all just as shocked and terrified as anyone else would be, stumbling over their words and uncertain of what to say. What COULD they say? What was even going on? Were they at war? Were they under attack? Were they safe at all? What was going on?!

Mark leapt from his seat and raced out the door, despite the confused protests of his parents. He shouted back something about having to go do something; making sure his friends were okay, something. He didn't know or care really, his mind was preoccupied. As soon as he was out of the house, he grabbed his morpher out of his pocket and slapped it onto his wrist, activating a small holographic display as he hurried towards the school.

"Who's seen the news?!" he demanded, his voice in a barely controlled panic.

Drew was the first to respond, "Dude, still watching it. Stuff's going down. They're saying that they just lost all contact with Europe and Africa. Like, the entire continent. What's going on!?"

"We're under attack, that's what!" Zoe's voice filtered through, her voice slightly ragged, "I'm on my way to the lab!"

"So am I. I suggest we all meet up there" Mark replied.

"Wait, Zoe, aren't you grounded?" Ryan interjected.

"You think I care?!" Zoe bit back. Ryan backed off, though it seemed Zoe was a little embarrassed, "Sorry. I'm just… I'll see you guys back at the lab".

Mark turned off his morpher and picked up his speed, breaking into a sprint towards the school. It was going to be a long and terrible night.

* * *

><p>Ryan had been halfway home when he heard about the news from his phone. He had made a u-turn and was now racing back to school on his bike. No one seemed to know exactly what was going on—he was getting conflicting reports about various computer systems going down and contact being lost. Europe was blacked out? That didn't seem right. How could they lose contact with an entire continent?<p>

* * *

><p>Zoe sped towards the school, free as could be. Her mom could suck it; she was a goddamn superhero.<p>

* * *

><p>Drew was beside himself; the worst had happened. Venjix was loose and crazy, and who the hell even knew what was going on. There was something about South America going dark.<p>

…Wait, as in the entire *continent*? Holy shit! How could that even be a thing?! He had made sure to disconnect all of his hardware at home before he left, but at this point he knew chances were good that that had been little more than an empty gesture.

* * *

><p>Mark made it into the lab second, after Ryan, completely out of breath. "Status!" he exclaimed between gulps of air, before landing in a seat in exhaustion.<p>

Ryan shrugged as he scanned through news article after news article on the console screen, "I…I'm not sure. I'm getting different reports; some say the EU's gone dark, others are telling me most of Africa has stopped responding".

"That's a heck of a lot of places!" Zoe exclaimed as she barreled into the room, before stopping to catch her breath.

"And I bet there's more going dark than that" said Drew, right behind her. A small notebook computer was in his hand. He opened it up and set it up on the main table, "South America's gone too, and we gotta remember Venjix was… –is- *everywhere*. I'd bet pennies Venjix has its claws on various systems everywhere else".

"So, theories?" asked Zoe as everyone but Ryan crowded around Drew's laptop. Certainly, allowing this to connect to the internet was a risk, but at this point did it really matter?

"Technological Singularity" Drew replied as he opened up various news sites and articles, scanning for any new tidbits. When no one said anything, he figured they were confused, so he continued, "Old futuristic idea from the twentieth century. As the speed of technological progress speeds up, it doubles then quadruples, etc etc. Eventually you have near-instantaneous technological progression. In the blink of an eye society is rewritten in ways we can't even comprehend until it happens. It's happened before; the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, the rise of computers…"

"…Does this have a point?" asked Mark, shaking Drew out of his lecture.

"I'm getting to that" Drew replied, slightly testy. Okay, so maybe he *had* been getting a little too off course, but it was all worthwhile knowledge, "Anyway, smart guy, the point is that one of the big things that could supposedly trigger a singularity, would be the advent of an artificial intelligence; an accidental creation of sapience that could improve itself. Likely already smarter than us because of its processing power, it could then build another sapient being beyond *it*, etc etc. Essentially, you have a world where humanity is not the top of the food chain, and instead you welcome in a post-human society".

"But…AI's are already a thing. Have been for millennia, outside of Earth" Ryan replied, still fiddling with his own computer screen.

Drew nodded, "Right. The futurists were mostly wrong; technological progression slows down after a certain point, and AI's tend to be of the friendly, robot buddy type, intentionally created and human-esque in temperance and personality—y'know, instead of a crazy asocial god-like abomination. The idea of a rogue program suddenly gaining sapience and going all skynet on us just doesn't work; the requirements for an AI are exceedingly complex and can only be achieved intentionally".

Drew leaned back in his seat, looking up at Mark and Zoe, "Besides that, there's something about the limits of processing power and memory and there just being some sort of limit to how 'advanced' a mind can get before it just fragments or evolves beyond something we can recognize as 'alive'. Don't ask me how it works, but it's basically why we've never run into any super-advanced entities, and why even the Machine Empire had robots who only ever existed on our own emotional and intellectual wavelengths. A Machine General might be able to process battle plans a bit faster than our puny little meat-brains, but they can't become, like, say, a massive godhead swarm of nanomachines spreading throughout the entire Milky Way in all directions. It's just not possible".

"So it was intentionally created" Mark said after taking a moment to process, only having understood about half of any of that, "…So who did?"

Zoe shrugged, "Anthropods?"

Mark shook his head, "Nah. Timetable doesn't add up. Venjix first appeared way before we became rangers".

"But what if one of the Anthropods were awake before the others?" asked Khepri, finally joining the conversation as he jumped up onto the table, "Perverting humanity's society against them *is* one of their MO's".

Ryan spoke up, his voice distant and shaky, "…Guys. Y-you gotta see this" he tapped a few buttons, bringing his console's screen to the big screen on the wall.

_"…We've gotten confirmed reports that large swaths of Africa, South America, and virtually the entirety of Europe have gone dark. We have been told we also lost contact with most civilian orbital satellites, though the orbital defense network has had its attention redirected to the so-called trouble spots. The following images are extremely unsettling; if you have children we strongly suggest turning them away"_

Everyone's jaws dropped as they saw the footage. Cities on fire, bodies littered everywhere. Mechanical…things swarming the streets and skies, not unlike ants covering an item of food. The scene repeated itself in city after city. Paris, Cairo, Rio, Berlin, Lagos, Nairobi, Istanbul, Buenos Aires; the list just went on and on. Sometimes they'd see local forces putting up a defense in isolated pockets, but there was no way they could hold them off.

"…This is a nightmare" Zoe said at last, after a few minutes of stunned silence, as the footage continued. Her voice was low, almost a whisper.

_"We now have conformation that machine forces have crossed the border into Panama—wait, we are getting multiple reports of invasions on multiple fronts. We um…A brief list follows. Moscow is under siege, there are multiple reports of amphibious crossings into the Arabian peninsula…"_

The news reporter droned on as the rangers all looked at each other.

"What do we do?" Ryan asked.

"I say we pay the Anthropods a visit" Zoe replied, not taking her eyes off the screen. Her expression was vacant, but her words contained nothing but malice.

"What if they aren't responsible?" asked Drew, as he closed his computer. He glanced at his leader.

Mark nodded, also watching the screen for a moment before looking at Drew and Zoe, "It doesn't matter. If they are responsible, we take them down hard. If not, then we still take them down. We can't afford to have them running around with all of this happening".

Ryan rolled his chair away from his computer screen, looking at the other three now, his hands behind his head, "But how do we find them? We don't know where their base of operations is".

A small sigh directed all attention to Khepri. The beetle glanced at each of them in turn before speaking, "That's…not entirely true".

Zoe put her hand on the table, leaning forward, "What do you mean?" she asked, suspiciously.

Another sigh, "…I've…had a seismic program running since I first got the base operational, looking for unusual subterranean movements near the city. It's found…a probable guess; the seismic footprint matches".

"Why didn't you tell us this before?" asked Mark, a bit of his sudden sense of being betrayed leaking through. Khepri didn't trust them? Why hide things?

"Like I said, it's not conclusive, and I didn't want you to worry yet. I…we aren't ready to storm the base. It's likely a labyrinth, like an anthill, and filled with loyal soldiers".

"I don't think we have a choice" said Zoe, standing back up, "Do you?"

Khepri thought for a moment before once again sighing, "No" he said, somewhat defeated, now looking at the table and no one in particular, "Go. …And be careful".

Mark made eye contact with each ranger in turn, each giving him a solemn nod. He allowed a bit of pride to worm its way into his heart; a few months ago they were all just squabbling children. Now they were a united team, completely committed to saving the world at any cost to themselves, even if it meant storming the enemy castle with no promise of survival. He nodded back, "Then let's do this" with that, Mark hurried out of the lab, the others following in tow.

"Er…Zoe"

"Hrm?" Zoe asked, turning to Ryan as they reached the door.

Ryan scratched the back of his head, looking for the right thing to say, "Um…maybe you should go back home. Let us handle this".

"Uh, why?" Zoe asked, slightly miffed as she crossed her arms, one of her eyebrows arching in annoyed curiosity.

"Well, you're kind of grounded, aren't you? Your family will be worried".

Zoe sneered, "Good. Maybe my mom'll freak a bit. Come on, we got a planet to save" she waved him off as she headed through the door.

"Zoe…" Ryan sighed, following her.

_"…Martial law has just been implemented across the planet. SPD forces state that all civilians should seek shelter immediately…"_

The four rangers caught that bit of the broadcast stream as they stood in the doorway, before looking at one another. Ryan gave Zoe a pleading look which she ignored. Mark caught this exchange, "Come on, let's hurry this up. The sooner we take out the Anthropods, the sooner we can go home".

The rangers nodded and piled through the door. A flash of light indicated to Khepri that they had morphed.

"…Good luck" he whispered to no one in particular, before turning back towards the video screen. On it, a simulated map of the world's computer systems showed an ugly shade of red slowly enveloping the neutral green.

* * *

><p>"This is bad" Waspawn said, her eyes transfixed on the globe in the center of the room, watching as Venjix's takeover of the remaining computer networks on the planet continued unabated.<p>

Lord Trill chuckled mirthlessly on his throne, "It would seem humanity has finally succeeded in destroying this planet. We waited too long, now no one will survive".

"Should we go back into hibernation?" asked Waspawn, "Take off for a new world?"

"I will never abandon my post" said Scorpiking. He seemed genuinely annoyed that Waspawn would even suggest such cowardly actions, "If it is the end of days, I shall face them standing, with a sword in my hands".

"I believe you will soon have that option, Scorpiking" Trill replied. Scorpiking and Waspawn turned towards their leader, a bit confused—but only for a moment as at that point the entire base shook, knocking the two of them off-balance. "Ah, sooner than expected" Trill chuckled to himself. With a wave of his hand, the crystal viewer switched channels from the human news to what was going on outside—two large Megazords were inbound, and at least one had opened fire.

"Rangers" Waspawn seethed in anger.

"Correct" said Trill, "It would seem our old friend Khepri found our little anthill. No doubt the rangers blame us for their own species' mistake. Scorpiking, Waspawn, take our legions and greet our guests, will you?"

Both monsters brought their arm up over their chest and bowed. "Yes, my lord" Scorpiking said, as they stood back up and headed out of the room, both drawing their weapons.

"It would seem we all still have a few cards to play" Trill said to himself, as another hit shook the room. Another wave of his hand and the crystal viewer changed its image to that of his monster maker, down in his lab, "Rolly. We have a situation".

* * *

><p>An explosion rocked the entrance to the hive, blowing a hole through the door. In its place stood the four power rangers, defenders of the city, weapons out and ready to take names. Red had pulled out his long sword, blue a pair of arched short swords that could combine into a pincer weapon, yellow a bow and arrow with a small protective shield over the hand, and green brought with him a sword and shield combo. In front of them stood the Anthropod's vanguard, the group of disposable ant-like troops known as the Myrmidons.<p>

"Okay rangers, you know the drill" Mark said, readying his blade, "Take 'em! Fast and hard!"

The four superheroes charged, hurdling into the Myrmidons who were unprepared for the ferocity of the assault. Meanwhile, the zords had split apart into their independent forms and were continuing to assault the base from the outside. Within a few seconds, the rangers had cut through the entire batch of foot soldiers sent to greet them, and were already racing deeper inside the labyrinth of tunnels and caverns, cutting down any unlucky grunt that got in their way.

"Seismic scanners say there's a large cluster to the left, directly ahead" Drew said, looking over the vague map Khepri's scans had netted them.

Mark nodded as he cut down another enemy, "Go go, go!"

The rangers filled out into a large empty room.

"…This is the base?" asked Ryan, a little incredulous, "Where's the um…"

"…Stuff?" Zoe finished for him.

Ryan nodded, "Yeah, stuff works".

"Really too bad you can't give us a tour" Mark said, eying Ryan. He had meant it as a jest, but more than a little venom seeped through.

The green ranger grunted in exasperation. He was getting really tired of this run-around, "I told you, they never took me to their base. Waspawn had an offsite facility for thralls".

"So you've said" Drew replied. More venom.

"And what's that supposed to mean!?" Ryan bit back, "I have been nothing but straight up with you since the spell was broken!"

"Boys, boys. Not the time" said Zoe. All attention was redirected to her, but she simply pointed to the far end of the room, where at the entrance to another tunnel stood Scorpiking and Waspawn.

Waspawn chuckled, "Well, well, well. Lookit this, vermin in our nest".

Within seconds, numerous Myrmidons swarmed out of the tunnels in the walls, dropping in all around the four rangers, who took up defensive positions, making an effort not to be outflanked by simply gathering in a circle.

"I'm afraid our base is in another castle" Waspawn added with glee, "And I'm afraid you're all out of extra lives".

"Yeah, great. That reference isn't dated or anything" Zoe muttered under her breath, making sure to keep tabs on all of the foot soldiers swarming around her.

Scorpiking spoke up with his bellowing voice, "Surrender now and live. Don't, and your deaths will be of your own making".

"Want to test that theory?" asked Mark, just before cutting down the Myrmidon in front of him, "Attack!"

Instantly the rangers jumped into action, working as a well-oiled machine, their earlier squabbles forgotten as they lay into the opposing force. Drew and Zoe contented themselves with slaying the never-ending swarm of foot soldiers, while Ryan went after Waspawn and Mark took on Scorpiking.

The red ranger got in close, dodging Scorpiking's attack as he snuck in his own. The two traded blows, each striking at each other and blocking in turn as they danced in an eerie synchronization, a dance they had repeated countless times since they had first encountered one another. During their first battle as rangers, Mark had lost against his foe badly, only being saved by Zoe and Drew at nearly the last moment. After, he had been enough of an idiot to go after Scorpiking for a rematch, and almost got killed because of it.

But now the two were almost equals. Scorpiking retained a slight advantage as Mark was forced onto the defensive more often than not, but the red ranger was still giving just as much as he got. He kicked away his foe's sword and swung around, cutting into the scorpion's chest. Sparks flew as the monster staggered back, bringing up his blade up to block the follow-up attack. The two blades slammed into each other, forcing another shower of sparks, before Scorpiking thrust the red ranger back. He aimed to stab at Mark, but the red ranger ducked, slicing his sword through the side of his enemy as the two passed by.

Scorpiking staggered, unable to defend as Mark swung back around and came down hard on him. The monster fell to the ground, rolling out of the way just in time to avoid another strike from Mark. Now in a crouching position, Scorpiking retaliated, the twin scorpion tails running along his back reaching up over his shoulders and striking at Mark. The red ranger barely knocked them away and was soon assaulted by Scorpiking as he bullrushed the red ranger.

Green was having similar luck as he evaded Waspawn's flurry of projectiles; bee stingers fired from a cannon on her wrist. Every time he tried to get close, she'd open fire with another barrage, forcing him to once again roll out of the way. Ryan brought up his shield, which withstood another barrage as he charged forward, bringing his sword to bear, closing in on his enemy.

Like Mark and Scorpiking, he and Waspawn had history. It had been Waspawn who had enslaved his mind, and it had been Waspawn who had forced him to strike at humanity. The wasp monster lifted her other arm up, blocking his sword with a small wrist shield, before opening fire again at point-blank range. The green ranger flew back through the air, landing in a heap against the wall as his adversary followed after him.

Zoe and Drew formed up back-to-back as the Myrmidons swarmed in from all sides. The blue ranger took his daggers and combined them into pincer formation, forming an energy wave that swept through the enemy ranks, while the yellow ranger unleashed a rapid-fire volley of laser arrows from her bow. As the battle became one of close quarters, Drew returned his weapons to dagger formation, quickly slashing through the enemy hoard as they approached.

Zoe, meanwhile, had converted her bow into a melee weapon, grabbing it by the center and using it almost like a curved lance, keeping her opponents at bay.

"Y'know, this was way more fun when there were like, twelve of them at a time and we were in the park" she grunted, flipping one of the foot soldiers over with her weapon.

Drew cut open another one with both of his blades in an splitting fashion, "Well, hey. You wanted to visit the enemy headquarters, you get the whole welcoming committee I guess".

Zoe cut through a swath by swinging her weapon in a wide arc, "They just keep coming! This is endless!"

"It *IS* an insect hive" replied Drew. He was panting slightly. Tired. That wasn't good; they couldn't keep this up forever. They needed an upset.

Apparently Mark had noticed this too, because she heard him order an Exo-Cannon strike. The three rangers regrouped, soon followed by Ryan, who was now reconfiguring his sword and shield into a large blaster weapon. Red, blue, and yellow combined their weapons into a singular cannon, and both guns were leveled at the enemy hoard.

"Ready!" Mark shouted, "Aim! Fire!"

Two vibrant beams of energy, one green and the other a spiral mix of red, blue, and yellow, burst forth from the rangers, cutting deep into the enemy lines. Most of the Myrmidons were incinerated on touch; the remaining few survivors quickly scurrying back into their holes in the walls. Scorpiking and Waspawn were also hit dead-on, exploding into a mass of sparks and smoke as their bodies were shot into the far wall, before dropping to the floor in a crumpled heap, their carapaces still smoking as they tried to stagger back to their feet.

"It's over, Anthropods!" Mark shouted, "Turn off the Venjix virus. This is your only chance".

Instead of Waspawn or Scorpiking speaking however, a new voice replied, "I'm afraid you are wrong on both counts, red ranger. It is neither over, nor have we anything to do with your computer worm".

All four rangers looked up to a balcony area above where the two generals were struggling to stand up. They too looked up and found their imposing figure of a leader standing there.

"Lord Trill" Mark seethed, "Rangers, ready!"

The two cannons were redirected towards the humanoid trilobite, "Aim!"

Trill seemed almost bored as Mark gave the final order, "Fire!"

The leader of the Anthropods stretched his hand out in front of him as the twin beams of light rushed at him. But instead of being roasted alive, an invisible barrier effortlessly protected him, the energy from the attack being deflected to the sides of the barrier, before being absorbed. After a few moments, the attack waned as the rangers realized they weren't getting through.

"Enough" Trill said, waving away the barrier and the last remnants of multi-colored energy, "You waste your time and your effort. Today is not the day of our final confrontation. Perhaps we are not destined to have one".

"What do you mean?" asked Mark.

"I mean we had nothing to do with the Venjix issue. As far as we are concerned, it is simply one more sin your species has committed against itself. We have deemed Venjix an insurmountable threat, so we will diminish".

"You…you're leaving?" asked Ryan, slightly confused.

Trill uttered a dry chuckle, "We are withdrawing, yes. We will seal ourselves off, escape the intentions of your doomsday. We will return after you have destroyed yourselves and the Earth is safe for our kind once more, as was always intended".

"But…if you're not responsible, then that means Venjix is a threat to us all!" Drew said, somewhat confused as to the sudden turn of events.

"Our goal was always about taking our planet back. Why struggle and fight if the dominate species wishes to destroy itself and save us the trouble? Your computer worm is only a threat to your technological way of life. We are immune to its corruption, so we will simply wait it out". With that, Trill turned to leave.

"But you live in this world too!" Zoe protested, "You can't just let it burn!"

The leader of the Anthropods turned back to face the yellow ranger, "The world is safe. It has survived millions of years and multiple mass extinctions. It survived the ice age, the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, and even the Great Dying of the Permian. The world will be here for a long time yet. As for your society that you children so arrogantly think of as 'the world', I couldn't care less. Good-bye, Power Rangers. You were…an amusing diversion".

Trill turned to leave again, "Waspawn, Scorpiking. Rolly has prepared our escape craft. Gather our troops and meet us in the Deep Chamber".

"Yes, my lord!" Scorpiking pledged, as he and Waspawn finally got back up, still obviously injured by the prior battle. They both scurried deeper into the den.

"Should…we follow them?" asked Zoe, not entirely sure where to go from here. As far as Final Battles were concerned, this was not entirely how she had envisioned it.

"I…" Mark thought for a second, then sighed, "…No. Let them go. They aren't a threat for now. We achieved our objective. Let's get out of here and deal with Venjix".

"Y'know. Unless they were lying" said Drew, folding his arms.

Ryan shook his head, "No. That was…legit. They were scared".

"How do you know?" asked Zoe, somewhat skeptical, but also curious.

Ryan shrugged as the four rangers began to head out the way they came, "Part of the spell, I guess. I can just…I can see their emotions. Pheromones or something, I dunno. I can't explain it".

"What else is new" muttered Mark.

"Mark!" Zoe grunted back. But before she could elaborate, Drew spoke up.

"Makes sense, actually. Ryan *was* enthralled by a eusocial insect hive. They'd have different ways of communicating emotions".

"Not like you can tell who's smiling or not with those monster forms anyway" Zoe added, pleased with the explanation. Mark said nothing, simply shrugging in acknowledgement.

The four rangers made their way up to the surface, now already covered in nightfall. In the distance they could make out the city lights, reflected in the omnipresent clouds that covered the sky above and blocked out the moon and stars. A chill had descended, typical for this time of year, but still not entirely welcomed.

"So now what, glorious leader?" asked Drew, turning to Mark as the four came to a stop at the anthill entrance. He was only vocalizing what everyone else was thinking; nothing after today would be normal ever again, they all knew that. They just didn't know what the new average would entail.

"…I don't know" Mark said after a moment of quiet contemplation, "I don't know".


	3. Things Fall Apart

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER THREE: THINGS FALL APART**

At first glance, one might have been forgiven for just assuming it was just rush hour, or that construction had backed traffic up on the main interstate leading into Alpine City from the south. Upon closer inspection however, one would have noted the worn, ragtag appearance of the vehicles, or the numerous military transports interspersed with the civilian cars and trucks, or their non-linear assembly—instead being parked haphazardly across the road, or even just the panicked nature of the civilians as they fled on foot, and the fact that every vehicle was full of supplies and personal affects.

Or…the explosions. Explosions were always a good indicator something was off.

"Jesus Christ!" the blast of one of the cars exploding thrust Drew back behind a now-empty military transport. Hostile jets flew overhead, and another car nearby exploded a blaze of chaotic glory. The blue ranger staggered back to his feet, watching as Mark opened fire on another robotic foot soldier, taking care to avoid hitting the civilians who were currently running and screaming for their lives. Venjix had definitely chosen the right moment to strike the refugee convoy; the stretch of road they were on was a narrow pass between two mountains, the road itself cutting into the bedrock, creating a perfect turkeyshoot for the enemy. And unfortunately, it was the only major route from the south into the city. Drew wondered how much trouble it would be to simply have the next convoy take a jaunt through a state route instead.

"Where the hell is Zoe!? She's supposed to be covering—" Drew was cut off by the double scream of two jets overhead being vaporized, followed by the sonic boom of the Ladybug zord soaring past, "Oh…there she is"

"Less talking, more killing!" said Ryan in a panicked voice, suddenly behind Drew. He had just driven his blade down, deep into another robot's shoulder, straight into the machine's core. As he pulled the sword back out, the robot sparked and collapsed in a heap on the asphalt.

Mark unleashed another volley of laser fire, falling back a few steps towards the others now that most of the civilians in the convoy had escaped further down the road towards the city, "This is ridiculous. Venjix raiding parties have never made it this far north! The front line's somewhere in friggin' Costa Rica! Where are they all coming from!?"

Ryan took the lead, charging up the blade of his sword with a green energy, before swinging it at the approaching hoard. A few more cars exploded along with the vanguard of their enemy. Not that it did that much; the rest of the hoard was still incoming. This was bad. He stole a glance of his partners; he could tell they were getting tired. They had been guarding this convoy for hours now, and before that had been another one, and before that another. It had started out easy enough; one a week or so. But as the war was dragging on more and more had begun to flee north and now it was an almost steady stream—and it didn't help at all that Venjix's forces had apparently gotten bolder, attacking further north and in more strength.

"Rumor has it the war's going worse than the news outlets are letting out" said Drew as the three backed away, watching the approaching enemy, "Worse as in, those raiding parties that hit Mexico City last week weren't raiding parties".

"You're saying the front line's collapsing?" asked Ryan as the three rangers readied themselves for the next wave. It would explain the situation, and why he couldn't get anything out of his relatives in Florida. He kept telling himself it was just a military blackout, but….he didn't like thinking about it.

"I dunno. It's hard to get any reliable news from the front" Drew shrugged.

Mark snorted, "As far as you're concerned, news isn't reliable unless the site's done an expose on Bigfoot in the last month".

"Uncalled for" said Drew, vaguely annoyed now, "And it's not my fault you take any shit line the government throws at you".

Ryan looked at them both incredulously. Really? They were going to do this? Right here, right now? "Guys! Now's *really* not a good time, okay?! We got problems!"

As if on cue however, another barrage of explosions ripped across the road, vaporizing the approaching enemy force—the only indication of what had just transpired being Zoe's zord making another pass overhead.

"Aaand Zoe wins the day. Again" Ryan sighed, sheathing his sword inside his shield, "Come on, let's get back to base".

"Uh, yeah. Since when are you in charge?" asked Drew. Both he and Mark turned to the green ranger, who seemed to realize he had just stepped in it as the two other rangers started to become confrontational. He put up his open hands in defense.

"Er…"

_"Hey, guys"_ Zoe spoke up through the communicators, a holographic representation of her helmet appearing over their morphers. Ryan sighed in relief as the attention was taken away from him, _"I've just swept up the remaining baddies, refugees are headed into the city. Returning to base"_.

"What do we do about the cars?" asked Drew, the prior discussion forgotten. The rangers looked around at the devastation—an entire highway clogged for miles with half-destroyed vehicles and filled with giant impact potholes, fresh from bombardment. This road wasn't going to be getting a lot of use in the near future, which was bad for future convoys for fairly obvious reasons.

Mark seemed to ponder for a moment, but his attention was shaken by his morpher suddenly beeping. The red ranger looked down at the data appearing in the holographic interface, grimacing under his helmet.

"…Leave it. It's the military's problem. We've got reports of Venjix troops hitting another convoy on the southeast end of the city. Come on, let's go".

"Busy night, I guess" Drew sighed; glancing back at Ryan, who nodded in agreement with a tired sigh, his shoulders slumped. Mark made no indication of his tiredness, instead simply heading towards his parked bike, a few more cars behind them.

* * *

><p>"That not the *POINT!*"<p>

"It totally is!"

Sigh. Another fight. Zoe had found a semi-comfortable corner to hunch up against some of the lab's hardware. As the blue and red rangers engaged in yet another screaming match, she simply looked down at her helmet in her hands. She wanted this to end; they had always had their differences, but now things were worse. Since Venjix the two rangers had been in a near-constant state of war. It was probably just nerves, she knew, but that didn't make these incidents any better.

"Mark, you're a competent tactician, I'll give you that, but when it comes to world events you're just *dense*!"

The helmetless red ranger wheeled around from his pacing away from Drew and looked him right in the eye, "Just because you're a paranoid loon—"

"Paranoid?!"

"Notice how he didn't get upset about the loon part" Mark smirked. Drew's face contorted in rage as he threw himself at Mark.

"Woah guys, enough!" on cue, Ryan had foolishly inserted himself into the argument, placing himself between the two other rangers and keeping them at bay with his arms. One day he would probably become the team mediator, able to keep the others in line and relatively sane, "We're all on the same team here. We're just tired and stressed. We just…need to calm down".

Unfortunately, that day was still a ways off. Red and blue wheeled on green, and for the second time in one day, Ryan realized he had fucked up.

"You're *barely* on this team as it is. This is my show, I give the orders" Mark said, getting up in Ryan's face, "Not you".

"And what a fine job you're doing" Drew scoffed, making a slow, mocking clap with his hands.

"That's it!" Mark swung his fist at Drew, who blocked. Unfortunately for the blue ranger, the rest of Mark's body soon followed suit.

"Hey! Enough!" Ryan threw himself into the writhing mess of fists and kicks as well, another idiot attempt to slow the other two down. It only got him a black eye and a few hits to the gut.

"*ENOUGH*!"

The three rangers halted at the sudden yell. It was deep and guttural, seemingly freezing time with its sheer force of emotion. Zoe stood there, panting, legs apart, with her helmet hanging loosely by her left hand. Her face was one of utter exhaustion, of one who hadn't had a wink of rest in days and was clearly very close to her breaking point. She had listened to this shit for over a week, all while constantly fighting for her life and NO, she was DONE. To hell with this shit.

"You're all goddamn children. And I swear to god if you don't shut up I'm going to—" she paused, unable to figure out what she was going to say next.

"No sweat, I was just leaving" Drew muttered, untangling himself from the other two and pushing them aside.

"Drew, wait—" Ryan said, but the blue ranger had already thrown the door open, letting it bang against the wall as he stormed out. The green ranger sighed.

Mark looked at the other two for a minute, "Enough of this" he muttered to himself, before also leaving. Green and yellow just looked at each other; Ryan with a pleading look. But Zoe just closed her eyes and shook her head, turning to leave. He watched her also vacate the base, and so Ryan slumped down in a seat at the main table, propping up his head with his arm.

Khepri leapt up onto the table, waddling over to the defeated ranger, "If it's any consolation, I think you're part of the team".

Ryan gave a half-hearted laugh, before looking at his mentor, "Try telling that to them. As far as those two are concerned, I'm still the enemy".

"They'll come around, I'm sure of it" the beetle creature twittered, "And anyway, it's just stress. The endless combat shifts, the lack of sleep…when was the last time you slept, anyway?"

Ryan shrugged, "I dunno. Yesterday maybe? The days are starting to run together". Thinking about it, when was the last time he had gone home? When was the last time any of them had gone home?

"Then maybe that's what you should do? You're just as human as the others, after all".

Ryan nodded, smiling faintly, "Yeah, good idea. Thanks Khepri".

The beetle creature smiled back, but the moment was short-lived as the base alarms went off.

"…Ooor not" Ryan sighed, standing up. He was looking over his morpher's holographic display, seeing yet another convoy raid occurring just outside of town. And it was worse now—with the main interstate out of commission, the refugees were being forced to use back roads, meaning that they were more spread out now that they had chosen multiple paths into the city.

"But—"

"Sorry, buddy. Maybe I'll get that nap later. Duty calls" Ryan grabbed his helmet and raced out of the lab.

Khepri simply watched the door where his team had left through, and continued to be witness to them falling apart.

* * *

><p>Four color costumed figures flew down the vacant street on the edge of town on their motorbikes, making a careful note to keep away from one another while still maintaining an illusion of being a united team. The city was a wreck; weeks of constant refugee convoys and raids from the enemy had left it a trashed wasteland, with litter covering the streets and sidewalks. Civilian life had almost ground to a halt, with many people having already traveled north, or simply barricaded themselves up in bunkers or in their houses. Alpine City now ran with a skeleton crew, with only the bare necessities to keep it going, and even those services were starting to shut down, one by one as even more people continued to flee.<p>

At some point, as the city became a main thoroughfare for refugees, the military had set up base in town, and their numbers had grown as what had started as just a waystation for convoy escorts became a rear-front base for continuing operations in the south. It was one of the reasons Drew was fairly certain the war was going far worse than what was reported; why would Alpine City of all places be a main staging location for troop movements if the frontline was somewhere in Central America.

As the four rangers reached the outskirts of the city, green broke rank from his location in the back and headed towards yellow.

"Zoe!"

The yellow ranger turned to see Ryan riding up next to her. "I'm not in the mood right now".

"…I don't think anyone is" Ryan said sadly, beginning to veer away again.

"Look" she sighed, "Don't take it too hard. We're all just…messed up right now. Just leave it be for now".

"Yeah" was all Ryan said as he pulled back to his earlier location in the back of the group. Up in the distance ahead flashes of light could be seen. The signs of battle.

"I'm reading a full wing of aerial drones incoming" Zoe said, speaking out to the entire team though her helmet's headset, "No foot soldiers this time".

"Good, then this'll be easy" Mark replied, "Let's test out those new upgrades to our bikes".

"Initiating hovecraft cycle mode!" Drew replied, somewhat happily.

…At least they were still able to function as a team.

The four bikes shifted and changed, picking themselves up off the street as their wheels split apart into hover engine wings.

"Let's do this!" Drew shouted with glee. The four craft shot off into the air at sonic speeds, thrusters on full burn. Up ahead, even at night, they could see both the convoy down below and the incoming drones directly ahead.

Mark gripped his controls tighter, "Hold…"

They were on a straight collision course.

"Hold…"

The enemy was almost right on top of them.

"BREAK!" shouted Mark, veering off. All four craft split in formation, opening up with a volley of laser fire on their chosen targets. A furious dogfight ensued in the sky over the convoy.

The drones never stood a chance.

* * *

><p>Three hours. Their last mission took three hours. After the initial wing of enemies, more kept coming in. It had been a never-ending cascade of metal and fire. And for the rangers, who were already becoming dangerously close to complete exhaustion, it had been one hell of an ordeal. Not that they would have ever complained. They were heroes after all; and despite whatever differences they had with each other, they would always have that in common.<p>

Khepri watched over them as they slept in some of the more uncomfortable positions he had witnessed people in. Did humans really sleep like that?

Zoe had found her earlier corner, leaning on one of the workstations for sleep. Ryan had found a nice spot not far from Zoe; suspicious. Mark had taken up one of the seats, and his upper body was now sprawled across the top of the center table. Drew, inexplicably, had just curled himself into a ball and was now occupying the space underneath one of the computer desks. They hadn't even bothered demorphing; they did that less and less these days.

It was six am. A few weeks ago, they would have been waking up to go to school. Now school had been out for well over a week—and they had simply stopped going long before that. They weren't students, they were soldiers. It wasn't supposed to have happened like this. When Khepri chose them to be rangers, he had never intended for them to lose their lives, their identities, just for the spandex. The Anthropods had been a threat, sure, but never one that demanded a state of total war by its combatants.

Another alert went off—another inbound convoy was under attack, about fifteen miles beyond the city limit. Khepri had made sure to turn off the alarms earlier so the rangers could get some actual sleep for once, so now the only indication that something was up was the blinking light and slight chirp one of the computers was giving off. Khepri glanced over at its screen. He was too far over to read the information pouring over it, but he could tell the general location of the incident. For a good few moments he simply stood there on the table, watching the screen and the blinking light, with an occasional aside at his sleeping team.

Then, with a deep breath, he hopped over to the computer, and exhaling, turned the alert off.

They were going to hate him when they woke up, but it didn't matter.

They were only human, after all.

* * *

><p>They were angry, of course, but life kept them from really pursuing it. Besides, it wasn't like they didn't have other bones to pick with their other teammates. Drew and Mark continued to barely avoid drawing blood, arguing about news outlets and their views on politics. Ryan would occasionally try to intervene, but was quickly learning that they weren't about to have any of his shit. As far as they were concerned, he was still the enemy. Zoe had just had about enough of everybody, and had continued to shut herself away, burying herself in her work and otherwise keeping far away from the others when not in combat…which wasn't often. Even her friendship with Ryan had suffered; the latter was still worried about the former's issues with her parents, especially since she hadn't bothered to go home in weeks. At least Ryan had bothered to fill his dad in on everything when the world first went to hell. But Zoe didn't even want to think about it, simply shutting the world away, and Khepri could tell that if Ryan wasn't going to back off soon, they'd have another screaming match on their hands.<p>

Sigh.

Work was…work. Every day more refugee convoys would flood in, and then just as quickly they'd pile out. Troops would be rotated in, and then rotated out to the front line. The city progressively became emptier and emptier, those choosing to remain barricading themselves in their homes, having long ago stripped the grocery stores bare.

The rangers rarely had downtime, and what precious few moments they did have were usually spent sleeping or eating. Hygiene had long gone out the window, and tensions were continuing to rise between them. Khepri would continue to not alert them to incoming convoys while they napped, which only further served to form a gulf between them and their mentor.

Things were falling apart.

It was five weeks into the war when it happened. It was a down period; the rangers had just returned from another mission fending off a raiding party downtown. They had just slumped down in their usual spots, far too exhausted to argue with each other. And…there was something else. Something about their eyes.

"What happened?" asked Khepri.

Mark broke out of his trance long enough to stare at his mentor, "It…didn't go well".

Nothing else was said. And judging by their expressions, nothing more needed to be said. The rangers had finally run out of steam. And then, as if on cue, the computer began chirping.

"No" said Zoe, her voice barely above a whisper, as she placed her arms over her knees and ducked her head down, "Not right now. I'm sitting this one out". Mark and Drew looked at each other for a moment, before each shook their head slightly and returned to watching the floor. Ryan did nothing at all.

Khepri hopped over to the computer and looked it over, surprise evident in his voice, "Oh. It's not an attack alert". *That* got everyone's attention as all heads turned towards Khepri. He continued, "It's a communique from Space Patrol Delta".

"Well, this day just bites then" Drew said, deadpan, with none of his usual playful sarcasm. The blue ranger still did nothing but stare at his feet.

"You…I don't know, you guys. You'd better come see this" the beetle said, fiddling with the holographic display, "It's important".

Somehow, the four shattered heroes found the strength to stand up and drag their bodies over to the computer where their mentor stood. With the tap of a button, Khepri activated the message. The head of an Aquitian, likely an SPD officer, appeared as a rather large hologram that covered most of the center table.

_"I assume I am reaching the home base of the Exoforce team?"_ the Aquitian asked in a very business-like tone.

Khepri nodded, "You assume correctly".

The Aquitian nodded back, _"I am Commander Sequaias, fifth deployment battalion, SPD. I have orders to bring you in"_.

"Under what charge!?" Drew said, his voice rising in a sudden rage, "…And how did you even find us!?"

If Sequaias was in any way effected by Drew's outburst, he didn't show it, _"We've always known where you were. SPD keeps tabs on all free-range teams, just in case. And you're not under arrest. You're being drafted"_.

"You have got to be kidding me" Zoe muttered. She leaned back against the wall, folding her arms in front of her.

_"I am dead serious"_ the Aquitian replied, _"You are all to report to New Tech City for assignment immediately"_.

Drew chuckled in contempt, "Heh. No. See, we're kind of busy over here. We've kind of got a city to protect, and we already got our hands full with all those refugee convoys you keep sending us. So thanks, but no th—"

_"Shut down our communication at your peril"_ Sequaias said, his no-nonsense persona fading a bit to incorporate an underlying anger. Drew's hand, which had been just about to turn off the computer signal, hovered for a second before withdrawing. _"Let me make this clear: this is not a volunteer situation. This is a draft. You will be escorted by our forces to New Tech City for assignment. If you resist, you will be incarcerated for the duration of the conflict and be brought up on charges of treason. We will not allow loose cannons free reign in a combat environment. Do I make myself clear?"_

"Yes, sir" Mark said, pushing Drew out of the way, "But can I ask what will be done with the convoys? Who will be protecting them?"

_"Our escorts will just have to do the best they can"_ said Sequaias, _"Beyond that it is no longer your concern"_.

"The hell it's not. Who gave you the right to pla—"

Once again, the SPD commander cut Drew off with a bellow, which combined with his native Aquitian voice made for a terrifying alien warble of noise, _"We have all the right. We're all that's keeping your planet from completely being overrun by your own virus, so if I were you, I'd show a tad more gratitude"_ Sequaias exhaled, calming down slightly, _"This is a war; people die. We can't save everyone. But it needs to be won now, or else there won't be anywhere for the refugees to escape *to*"_.

No one responded; it was clear they had no choice in the matter.

Content with this, Sequaias continued, _"Escorts will be arriving at your base to pick you up via shuttle in approximately four hours. Pack what you need; you won't be coming back for a while"_.

Sequaias' face vanished from view, the communication signal having disconnected. The four rangers and their mentor looked at each other. Ryan slumped back down to the floor; he didn't want to do this anymore. The gravity of the situation seemed to hit them at different times; Zoe was next, sitting down next to Ryan.

Drew stared blankly at the computer for a moment, before spinning around and delivering a savage kick to one of the chairs as he roared in anger, sending it tumbling into another. Both objects hit the ground in a loud crash.

"Oh, that was mature" Mark sneered.

"Shut up! Just…for once in your miserable, insufferable life, shut *up*!" Drew yelled, tears forming in his eyes as he pointed his finger accusingly at the red ranger, "You win, okay?! We're going to go play soldier for some jackass who thinks we're nothing but disposable meat puppets! All hail SPD! All hail the conquering empire! We've always been at war with Eastasia!"

"Yeah, that's right, damn them for trying to save this planet. Damn them for giving a shit!" Mark shot back. His fists balled up in rage as he pressed on, "You're such an ungrateful snob. All you think about is yourself, and your bullshit conspiracy theories. WAKE UP, DREW! The world isn't out to get you, the world doesn't *CARE*. They're doing their best to help us, and you're just-"

"And what about your family, huh? Just going to leave them to burn? 'Cause that's what SPD's doing!"

The sound of fist hitting jaw echoed throughout the room, as Drew stumbled back, shocked out of his rant as he felt his face with his hand. Mark just stood there, panting, not sure what to do next, and not even completely sure what had just happened. The room was silent.

"You know I'm right" Drew said, softly.

"STOP IT!" Zoe screamed, "Just…STOP. I can't deal with this anymore!" the yellow ranger shot back up, storming out of the room for the umpteenth time. Ryan, in contrast, just sat there, just...staring at his feet. It didn't matter.

"Why would an intergalactic military organization need civilians like us to fight what is, in their eyes, a small provincial war? Either they're lying about how much effort and resources they're bothering to put into it, or they're lying about how badly the war's going. I'd bet my money on both"

Mark glanced at Drew, who now leaned forward on the table, his hands gripping the back of one of the seats. His eyes looked straight ahead, at nothing in particular. The red ranger then looked down, and sighed.

"We're rangers, Drew. We go where we're needed, regardless of anything else. And if you were right, wouldn't you rather be winning the war on the front lines, instead of just waiting here until the end? They're right; we can't save anyone here".

Mark turned, and quietly vacated the room. Drew nursed his jaw, "Maybe we can't save anyone" he whispered to no one in particular.

* * *

><p>Four hours later, and the winter sun was casting a golden glow over the mountain valley.<p>

Mark, predictably, had arrived first, towing a duffle bag with him. He dropped the bag on the sidewalk just outside of the school, next to the parking lot, and sat down on top of it, taking a moment to just…enjoy the cold morning breeze.

He must have dozed off, because the next time he opened his eyes, the rest of the team had assembled around him, bags in hand. It was weird seeing them like this—it had been literal weeks since anyone had demorphed, and yet here they all were in civilian form, and somehow, seeing them all out of uniform made them look even more worn and beaten. Had they really just been part-time superheroes, going to school and worrying about graduation just a scant few weeks ago?

What a different world that had been.

He missed it.

"I didn't think some of you were going to show" he said, his voice just above a whisper. Things were tense, but he was still secretly glad that the entire team had decided to go with him.

Drew didn't look at him, and his voice was just as low, "We're still a team. You were wrong about that; I'm not self-absorbed. You should know better".

"Yeah" Mark exhaled. Nothing more was said.

A few minutes later, the sounds of an incoming orbital shuttle-jet could be heard roaring through the atmosphere, its trail of white-hot air clearly visible in the sky above. Yet despite its speed, it quickly slowed down and landed gracefully in front of the school, not a single sign of wear or tear from its decent on the hull. It was your average SPD shuttlecraft; grey, blocky, utilitarian. Big 'SPD' letters were emblazed on both sides, if anyone would still be mystified to its owners. From under the front, a walkway opened up, a panel from the under-hull of the vessel pulling down to the ground to form a ramp. Out of the ship, a small group of armed soldiers stepped out and approached the rangers, who in turn were making their way to them.

"Private Orson, sir" the lead soldier said, matter-of-factly, "We're here to escort you to New Tech City for mission briefing. May I take your bags?"

"Mark, red Exo ranger" Mark said, extending his hand for a shake. Orson didn't reciprocate.

"I'm aware of who you are, sir. Your bags, please".

Mark glanced back at his team. His eyes matched with Drew's, for the first time since their argument. It was a glance of knowing, yet of confusion and uncertainty. And yet…trust? The red ranger turned back to Orson and smiled confidently, "Here" he said, gripping his bag on front of him.

Orson nodded, "Thank you, sir. If you will follow me, please".

Mark took one last deep breath of air from his hometown, and followed Orson in. The others handed their bags off to the other soldiers and followed suit. Ryan was last, and gave one last longing look back to their city, as if to burn its image into his mind. He had a sinking suspicion he'd never see it again.

* * *

><p>Khepri watched the ship take off from the computer screen from the comfort of the lab. He had already seen to everything else; the rest of their arsenal had been loaded into the zords, which were now being piloted remotely by SPD to New Tech. The armory had been completely emptied, and there didn't seem to be much reason for lab to be anymore.<p>

"Computer" Khepri said, after the shuttle had vanished from view, "Begin main systems shutdown. Commence hibernation mode. Authorization code B5, A6, Scarab Divinity protocol".

The computer systems complied, shutting down one by one, until the room was lit only by a few emergency mood lights. There was no use in using so much energy, and being such an attractive target to hostile forces. Khepri hoped to simply avoid detection, and wait out the storm he knew was coming. With no defenders left in the city, it would only be a matter of time before Venjix raiding parties began to take the city apart, building by building.

The scarab yawned, stretching before curling up in his nest, and going to sleep.

"Good luck" he whispered, to an empty room.


	4. The Enemy's Castle

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER FOUR: THE ENEMY'S CASTLE**

Everything was rock.

It was supposed to be jungle-somewhere in the Yucatan. Yet, there was nothing there, just rock. Drew of course had taken as a sign that they were actually way further north and that—surprise surprise—SPD was lying about the condition of the war, but the rest had pretty much taken it as a truth—Venjix's forces had essentially just strip-mined and blasted the once lush jungle into oblivion, all within a scant few weeks. There weren't any roads either; no cities or towns or…anything.

Everything was rock. And the sky was nothing but an eerie, cloudy pale.

The SPD shuttle shot over the desolate wasteland, heading on-schedule towards its designated target. Upon leaving Alpine City, the rangers had been hurriedly transported to New Tech City, where they and two other civilian ranger teams were saddled with a mission and unceremoniously tossed out the door. It was a good thing they had at least been able to get some shut-eye and some food before being thrown right back into the thick of things—this was probably the most well-rested they had been in weeks.

The mission, on paper, was simple. They were headed towards a major Venjix factory location, one of the primary forward bases in his campaign against humanity. Their objectives were twofold: the first was to hack into Venjix's database and steal its secrets. The second was to blow everything the fuck up.

Zoe took note of the other two teams. One was a three-person team of red, yellow, and a female blue. She had vaguely remembered seeing them on the news back in middle school. Eighth grade, she thought. Mark had said something about them being the chosen defenders of Coastal Bluff City, fighting…something, something, parallel dimension. They had a very sci-fi aspect to them, their suits incorporating bits of armor and very intricate angles and details. Beyond being tech based however, she couldn't tell if they were based on anything in particular.

On the other end of the shuttlecraft's cabin, the other team was larger; six full members, one of which had been a late-comer. She knew them way better; they had been all over the news last year. They had operated out of Turtle Cove during the Second Org Resurgence, and were very obviously based on sea creatures; red squid, blue shark, black man-o-war, yellow turtle, and pink dolphin…and silver rounding out with the power of the plesiosaurus, because why not. They were the Exo team's immediate predecessors, and while she would never admit it publicly (she liked to play it cool with regards to her ranger duties), inwardly she was totally geeking out that her role models were on the same ship with her—and they were going to be working together on the same mission too! She remembered their team-up with the prior year's rangers—a group of treasure hunter archeologists who had thwarted the so-called 'Empire of Crystal'. Ever since becoming a ranger, Zoe had always hoped to be lucky enough to team up with another group. It was almost like a ranger tradition.

If only she could work up the nerve to introduce herself to them.

The shuttle cabin was…well, what one would expect for a military transport; two parallel seat lines on either side of the vessel, racing from the front of the ship to the back, with a large open space in the center for supplies and equipment. Everyone was strapped in; even without the occasional Venjix patrol wing, the sky was turbulent. Drew had said something about the factories clogging the air with toxic chemicals and how it was messing with the Earth's atmosphere.

Speaking of…

Zoe swept her view around to her own teammates. Mark was going over battle strategies on his morpher, while Drew was fiddling with the seemingly humble laptop computer given to him by SPD. Hard to believe that was the device armed to the teeth with cyberwarfare packages aimed to hack into Venjix's network. Ryan, surprisingly, was asleep—as if anyone could sleep through the constant turbulence. She kind of envied him, if for no other reason than that she was starting to get butterflies in her stomach about the mission, and she would have rather slept through the trip instead of stress about the inevitable.

* * *

><p>Really, not much of this made sense. He had continued to go over the files and data in the computer, and there was a *lot* here. Sensitive data, too. He got the general just of things; provide a lure for Venjix; give it just enough rope to hang itself, but was all this really necessary? …Then again, it *was* SPD, and as far as Drew was concerned, they were at best incompetent, and at worst dangerous.<p>

It would seem that today they had decided to be the best of both worlds. What if Venjix beat their cyberwarfare suite? What if it attained all that information in the computer's databanks? The results on the war effort would be disastrous. Sure, they had made sure this computer wasn't connected to the SPD network (and in fact had zero wireless capability. Crazy archaic, but worthwhile), but that wasn't enough of a comfort.

Not that he would mention this to Mark. A few days ago he probably would have, but…that last confrontation. Things had gotten heated, and probably contrary to popular belief, Drew didn't actually relish confrontation. Sure, he was always right, but that didn't mean he liked constant fighting. Nor did he really want to make an enemy of his leader and teammate. They might have had their differences (and Mark was definitely a gullible stick in the mud), but he *did* respect the red ranger, and they had been getting closer before the war started.

God, the war. It had just upset everything. Before, the team had really been solidifying. Certainly, the two of them plus Zoe (and, he reluctantly agreed, Ryan) came from very different social circles in school, but against all odds they had become a fully functioning team. Yet now all of that was coming undone, and they were at each other's' throats constantly—or in Zoe's case just shutting out the world completely when they others started at it.

Sigh.

At least this mission had allowed him to connect with some of his brainy counterparts from other ranger teams. The red Technowave and black Aquatic Squadron rangers had joined him in his data mining of the SPD computer. The three had hit it off fairly well, though Drew had been at a bit of a disadvantage; both red and black had met each other on a prior mission. They hadn't elaborated, but it had involved something about Uranus's hidden moon and the 'Great Darkness'—whatever that meant. Really, Drew hadn't realized just how interconnected the ranger community was, and was now feeling a little depressed about just how isolated they had been, and that it was only now that the entire planet was on the blink of destruction that they were finally getting involved.

Red, of course, had replied that that was how *ALL* team-ups happened, like with the 'Great Darkness', and how it had almost plunged the Earth into eternal night. Drew still wanted to know what that mission that had been about, but red had replied that she would only tell him after a successful mission. She was kind of cryptic like that; wise, yet mysterious. She was someone who always knew far more than she let on, often more than annoyingly so. Black was different; he was the analytical type, your traditional smart nerd, not a fringe science and conspiracy theory obsessed computer geek like Drew. Drew could respect that, even if he thought he was even more of a stick in the mud than Mark—no imagination whatsoever.

The files on the computer itself were fascinating. There were the standard SPD schematics; plans, devices, protocols, passwords, account databases, etc, all the things Venjix could want. But then there were some of the project updates. There was stuff in here about Project Polis, the archology system that had been popping up all over the world over the last decade or so. There hadn't been much about it even on his own news sites; though their existence was well-documented, most everything about them were still fairly classified. Drew had always assumed they were domed cities for the rich and influential, but reading this? Contracts from SPD, the United Nations, dozens of military and scientific corporations…this was a real thing.

And they were everywhere too; many major metropolises had at least one under construction. Yes, they were designed with the upper class in mind for peacetime, but this…this was also some sort of last-ditch defense system in case another alien armada decided to invade, or in case Yellowstone or something went off. These domed cities were designed to be fortresses once complete. And that explained where all those refugees that had been passing through Alpine City were going.

Holy shit.

He chuckled at the names; as per 'Project Polis', the names were all based off ancient Greek city-states. Clever. There was Argos in Toronto, Sparta in Berlin, Athens in Angel Grove, Corinth in Boston…dozens of fortress cities.

Man. He didn't give SPD credit very often, but damn sometimes even a broken clock was right twice a day.

* * *

><p>Sometimes, you'll have a dream that is so vivid, so realistic, that when you awake midway through it, for a moment you'll confuse it for a memory of what happened the day before, or even that you weren't sleeping at all and you're still doing whatever it was you were doing in your dream.<p>

That is in fact what happened to Ryan upon waking. Of course, it probably helped that the green ranger pretty much awoke to everything collapsing around him.

See, Ryan had been dreaming about flying. A simple dream, but vivid. So you could imagine his surprise when, as the SPD shuttle approached the Venjix factory, the anti-aircraft batteries opened fire. The first thing Ryan realized upon awaking was that he was no longer flying; in fact he was pretty sure he was falling. The hit from the blast had knocked him out of his seat onto the floor, and there was fire everywhere. It took him a moment before he really came to terms with the situation and realized exactly what was going on.

Mark was yelling something about rangering up; so were the other red rangers. Flashes of light went off as the other rangers began morphing around him. The scene as he got up was chaotic; the ship was rapidly falling apart around them as fire began to consume the vessel's cabin. Another explosion ripped one of the side doors open, allowing Ryan a bird's-eye view of their impending crash, the vast desert coming closer and closer. There was fire, and screaming, and chaos and…

Ryan wasn't sure when he morphed, but at some point he had. He also remembered being grabbed by Zoe and pulled towards the door. She was yelling something…maybe about jumping? Falling? Crashing?

Yeah, they were definitely crashing.

Zoe pushed Ryan out of the shuttle once it got close enough to the craggy ground below, flailing out with him as she sent them into a bit of a roll, hitting the ground and tumbling down the side of a hill before landing in a heap. Thank god for ranger powers, otherwise even with Zoe's tactics they wouldn't have made it.

The peace only lasted for a second however, as bombs and explosions were still going off all around them. A massive one went off not too far away; likely the shuttle colliding with the planet.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Zoe shouted, stumbling as she tried to get up. Ryan had noticed she had suffered injuries in the crash; she was currently grasping her left arm and limping a bit. He didn't feel very well off himself; his abdomen was on fire. Hopefully it was just a bruise and nothing to worry about, on both their accounts.

Another explosion just a few feet away sent stone debris flying around them. Then there was another, and another. Overhead, hostile jets flashed past.

"RUN!" Zoe shouted, grabbing a still somewhat-dazed Ryan by the hand.

* * *

><p>Shit was bad. REALLY bad. And really, he should have seen this coming. When did an assault mission ever go off without a hitch, even in the movies?<p>

*Especially* in the movies.

But Mark was a strategist, and it didn't take him long after landing to zero on his situation. The red ranger sprang into action, quickly tracking down each of his scattered teammates. Drew was easiest, the blue ranger had landed a few feet away, having against all odds protected the computer with his body. Mark couldn't have been prouder; the two may have had their issues, but when push came to shove, Drew was just as dedicated to the mission as he did, even if Drew would never admit it.

Zoe and Ryan they caught completely by luck, rushing around the side of a craggy hill to the other party as the bombs continued to fall. The group seemed to debate for a moment on which way to go, before being forced away from the hill by another explosion.

The other rangers were harder to find, especially in all the chaos—the rangers' morphers couldn't get a fix on anyone with all the energy fluctuations from the continued shelling. After a minute or two however, a flare went off not too far away, indicating the location of one of the other teams—Mark mentally kicked himself, wishing he had thought of that too. The flare led them to the Aquatic Squadron team, and they were soon followed by the Technowaves.

To Mark's own surprise, he was the one who ended up taking charge, and even more surprising, no one questioned him. Red Technowave was more of a laid back advice-giver than a field leader, and red Aquatic Squadron was…well, in the very short time they had known each other, Mark could really only consider him to be lazy and apathetic, or 'free-spirited' as he had described himself.

Ugh.

He could tell that it was the blue ranger of the Aquatics that seemed to run things, but even then he seemed to leave it up to a group decision—a fine democratic method, but ultimately useless in a battle situation as far as Mark was concerned.

Thankfully, though the constant barrage made it difficult for morpher scanners to lock onto people, that didn't apply towards larger structures, such as the giant fortress factory…directly in front of them. That was visible for miles.

Hrm.

* * *

><p>Sigh. They were fighting again. Drew and Mark, she meant, not the obvious 'hellish machine abominations who were attempting to eradicate them from above'. They had mostly been steering clear of each other since being picked up by SPD, but as soon as the topic of strategy came up they were bickering like an old married couple again. But, at least it was like the old days of just arguing, and not…not whatever the last few weeks had been (The fact that they were frantically screaming above the never-ending shelling was notwithstanding; she knew it wasn't a super-angry yelling match. Yet.). She was grateful for that, for some increment of normalcy.<p>

Still.

Hrm. Maybe they should get out of the constant barrage of firepower. She had ALMOST gotten used to it, which was a bit disturbing. When they had crashed, she had been freaking out like nobody's business, but now that things had reached a new (if noisy and deadly) equilibrium, she found herself becoming numb to the noise—probably helped by the fact that there was now an omnipresent ringing in her ears that had begun to drown everything else out. The fog seemed to move over the rest of her senses, making it feel like she was almost in a dream or something.

Mark wanted a full frontal assault, taking the base from multiple angles all at once to catch Venjix by surprise—breaking into its computer network after the enemy had been disposed of. It was clear he was improvising from an earlier plan; it almost required an element of surprise they weren't going to get now that Venjix's forces had spotted them and were currently in the process of smashing them from the air.

Drew, meanwhile, was advocating hacking now, sieging later, so that the assault would be easier. He was fairly certain he could get in in a reasonable amount of time, and that everyone just had to form a defensive premiere for the meantime. The downside of that was of course the obvious fact that they were being out in the open and exposed to enemy attack from above.

It was the red Technowave ranger who interceded (thankfully, as Zoe didn't want to have to get in the way), as the group continued to seek whatever refuge they could from the stony expanse, using boulders and debris as makeshift shields from the endless assault. She advised a double assault; a small group would escort and protect Drew as he hacked into Venjix's database, while the others would conform to Mark's multiple front attack on the base. They would work as a good diversion from Drew, and would allow for the group to finish their mission in one go.

So they paired off, rushing the base before splitting into their assigned positions. The Technowave team went off with Drew, racing over to one of the outside walls of the complex, out of view of the yellow ranger. Mark ended up with the red and blue Aquatic Squadron rangers, while Ryan took off with the silver and black rangers, leaving Zoe with the two girls, yellow and pink. Each group would take a different approach, flanking the base and the various foot soldier groups that were now beginning to stream out.

Zoe hadn't really yet had an opportunity to speak with either of her new teammates, but she had a feeling she really wouldn't get that opportunity for a long while. The three were now being swarmed by mechanical troops, and very quickly they were fighting for their lives, and to get inside the base. Thankfully, at least, now that the ground troops had begun their attack the aerial assault had somewhat subsided. It would seem even Venjix stopped just short of friendly fire.

Didn't much help the ringing in her ears, though.

* * *

><p>Load up the warfare and defensive suite. Access Venjix's network from the wall. Startup hacking systems.<p>

Try not to die.

Another explosion ripped through the rock behind Drew, causing him to hit a near-fetal position, having already been crouching, his computer on the ground. As yet another blast hit a few feet in front of him, it became clear that even being up next to the wall wasn't going to help him. It seemed the red technowave ranger had come to the same conclusion, as she was making her way to the nearest entrance, which happened opened and now numerous mechanical soldiers were filing out. The four rangers began fighting their way inside.

Something was wrong. The battle was progressing too easily. Wasn't it odd how none of the blasts had hit them? Wasn't it odd that the soldiers seemed to be putting up just enough of a fight to appear like they were defending the base? Or was he just paranoid?

The Technowave team got Drew to an isolated chamber, guarding it while he plugged the computer in and he did his work, now far more uncertain and paranoid about what he was doing. Something was wrong.

Something was *wrong*.

The cyber suite was breaking through Venjix's defenses at regular intervals, right on schedule.

Something was wrong.

The others were keeping the enemy at bay.

Something was wrong.

The computer broke through.

Something was wrong.

Everything seemed to slow down as the computer began to download, and as Drew began to realize that wasn't what it was doing. A terrible dread sank into his stomach as an upload into the computer started.

No, no. That was part of the plan. That was part of—

The computer sparked, sizzled, and then ceased to function.

That was NOT part of the plan. Shit. Shitshitshitshitshit—

Time was still slowed, distant. Another explosion down the hall was muffled, unreal. Drew got up. He didn't remember standing, but before he knew what he was doing, he was already racing out of the room, out of the factory, out into the warzone. He remembered shouting into his morpher on an open channel, about how everything was wrong, how it was all a trap, how Venjix had *everything*. He remembered the distant, muffled blasts all around him. He remembered the utter chaos, now veiled in a haze of his own panic.

He didn't remember how anyone responded. He only remembered the confusion as they all started shouting back.

Everything was wrong.

* * *

><p>Everything was wrong.<p>

Mark looked over at his two teammates, the red and blue Aquatic Squadron rangers, as Drew's hysterical ranting flooded out from his morpher. All three rangers stopped fighting for a split second, before the machine troops continued to come after them. He couldn't see their expressions under their helmets, but he was certain it was just as fucked up as his.

It was a trap. It was all a trap.

Everything was a haze, but the next thing he remembered in the mass of endless machine limbs after him was the wing of SPD fightercraft swarming overhead, slamming their weapons into the base. The mission had at least been partially successful; the deflector shield had been disabled, as Mark witnessed as the base erupted in a shower of hellfire and shrapnel. Probably an acceptable sacrifice for Venjix. As the debris from the base settled, an eerie calm seemed to come over the battlefield. The mechanical troops broke rank and began to retreat, and the remaining fighters banked away, flying into the distance. Venjix had what it wanted; there was no use to continue fighting here.

The teams regrouped, slowly but steadily. Soon, Mark saw all of his teammates, as well as the entire Aquatic team.

…Wait. Where were the three Technowaves?

Mark noticed Drew trudging over to him, his shoulders slumped and haggard.

They were inside. They were still inside.

The red ranger turned towards the smoldering ruins of the former base. Oh god.

…Oh god.

Oh god.

* * *

><p>The green ranger watched the others argue with Commander Sequaias's holographic form over Mark's morpher. What a goddamn mess. Venjix had…something of SPD's, he wasn't sure what, but from Drew's frenzied ranting it hadn't been good. Likely Venjix had hacked something important. The entire Technowave ranger team was dead, killed by friendly fire when the SPD jets opened fire without warning—that hadn't even been part of the plan. At least, he didn't think so. They hadn't said anything in the briefing.<p>

Drew was angry, Ryan could tell. The rangers had all removed their helmets, letting the harsh wind of the desert sandblast their faces. They didn't care. Drew was screaming at Sequaias.

No, wait. Now Mark was shouting at Sequaias, just as angry. Zoe was screaming too, as were a pair of the Aquatics.

Now Sequaias was shouting, putting everyone in their place. Something about the needs of the many, and acceptable losses. Whatever it was, it wasn't placating anyone. The rangers were baying for blood, and Ryan would have been hard-pressed not to agree with them. The green ranger looked back, once again, at the burning wreckage of the factory, closing his eyes and sighing before turning back to where Drew was on a complete tirade.

Sequaias would try a few more times to explain, but finally got tired of being drowned out, and simply threatened each of them, threatened their families, their futures, told them exactly what would happen if Venjix was allowed to win, if SPD was unable to hold the line because of them. Blackmail. Anything he could threaten. They were soldiers now, and they would do their duty until the end, or risk losing everything. That shut everyone up, though each of their faces openly betrayed how they felt. How Ryan felt. All the pain and anguish and hate and bewilderment and weariness. He had never really gotten into Mark and Drew's constant squabbling over SPD and the government (except to try and calm them down), but now…

Shit, man. Just…shit. Shit was…shit. What the shit.

Another SPD troop shuttle was incoming. They were being redeployed, the two surviving teams being split up. There were, after all, more factories to hit. But now each of them knew they were completely expendable in the war effort. And yet, all Ryan could wonder was…what did Venjix gain by hacking that computer?

Drew angrily kicked the disconnected head of a robot soldier into the air, howling in rage. Mark said nothing, his head staring at the ground dejectedly. Zoe brushed her hand through her hair, pacing and trying to keep her composure. Ryan wasn't sure if she was about to cry or join Drew in his ineffectual rampage. He almost felt sorry for the incoming shuttle crew.

Almost.


	5. The War

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER FIVE: THE WAR**

_Red ranger, personal log_

I messed up.

I should have *known* things were too easy. I should have *known* better than to cave in to Drew. We should have secured the area first, and then worked on the hacking, if for no other reason than that we could have thought it over first. I was just so tired of fighting with him. Now Venjix has who knows what kind of information and an entire team of rangers is dead. All on my watch.

God damn, three of them. Three rangers, bombed out of existence. I barely got to know them, though I respected their red ranger. She was something else. And now they're dead. I don't even know how to process that. Rangers aren't supposed to die. I remember back when I first became the red ranger, I read up on some of our predecessors. In over a century of rangers just here on earth, there have been maybe five recorded deaths in the line of duty, not counting non-ranger allies. And now I've almost doubled the casualty report in an afternoon.

I should have just told Drew 'no'. I just…what was I thinking.

…No. I know what I was thinking. I'm just…I'm just frustrated. I'm a strategist. I should have known better; our situation was untenable. Splitting up our forces like that was needlessly dangerous even without the friendly fire.

And I hate to think Drew was right, but damn. Sequaias used us like pawns. He set us up as disposable and then pulled the rug out from under us when things didn't go his way. And what were they thinking with the information lure anyway? Unless the info was faked, but the way they took out that base? I think that shit was legit. I think they messed up and realized they had to sanitize the area fast. The question is, just how bad *did* they screw up?

We're being redeployed to Puerto Rico, apparently there's a Venjix naval base there we're supposed to take out-deja vu. I didn't realize the front lines were so far north—before we left a few days ago, everything on the news seemed to imply that the war was raging somewhere around Panama, and that's how it's been since the war started. But since being drafted, we've been out of contact from news except from what little SPD tells us during our briefings.

I keep telling myself that I'm just paranoid and Drew's just up in my head, but it all adds up. Shit. My dad was in SPD, for years. They were an honorable, loyal organization. What happened?

And how long until we're considered expendable, like the Technowave team? I refuse to let my team be slaughtered because some asshole decided it was 'strategically sound'.

I *refuse*.

The others aren't taking it well. Drew and I still aren't talking, but whatever. I have more pressing things to work on then dealing with his surly nature. Still…he seems kind of, I don't know, out of it. I'm guessing he blames himself.

Zoe's just completely shut out the world now. I don't know how capable she'll be in combat.

Ryan…he's trying his best to keep Zoe together. I might have baggage with him, but even I can see the poor kid's lovesick. If we get through this, I'm beating some sense into him to just ask her. Still…I can see him starting to crack too. He was always the quiet one—I know that's pretty much an endorsement for serial killer status, considering, but I've never really been able to figure out what he's thinking. And he's *always* thinking. Maybe he's keeping tabs on Zoe so he doesn't have to think about his own problems for awhile. I don't know, I was never good at the touchy feely stuff, that was always Zoe's shtick, and she's about three steps away from a coma.

What a mess we are.

* * *

><p><em>Blue ranger, personal log<em>

They aren't telling us anything. We've been doing this for days now, and all we're getting is the template-style 'the war isn't going great, but this mission can turn it all around' bullshit. I'm not twelve; I know when I'm being fed or babysat. I trust them enough to know they aren't lying when they say the war isn't going well; in fact they're probably understating it. We took out a base in Puerto Rico, and yet we're headed north toward Florida? Yeah, this was nothing like what the news organizations were spouting about 'containing the threat' in the south. I haven't said anything to Mark; really neither of us have talked except in combat since leaving home, but he has to be realizing that things aren't adding up, even if he doesn't want to admit it. I know his dad was some SPD official or something, so he's got a bit-or, a lot I guess-of bias.

I hate it when I'm right. And I'm *always* right.

And yet I'm an idiot. I *knew* SPD's plan for the base was stupid and took unnecessary risks, and yet I played along anyway. I don't know why. I guess…I dunno, part of my mind thought maybe if I just did what they said, everything would work out for the best. Despite all my warnings and bluster, deep down I guess I still just wanted to trust my superiors. Damn it.

Mark and I haven't talked since our shouting match outside our base back home. Not that we were talking much before that either, but before we were just keeping our distance. Now…I don't know. He were on the same side when shouting at Sequaias, and I guess now we're just dealing with the aftermath of everything. But our relationship was rocky even before the war. Now…are we even still friends?

I dunno.

The raid on the Puerto Rican base was easy enough, I guess. We almost died, we were outnumbered and outgunned by magnitudes, and we had zero support—but I mean, our objectives were only 'take down the base' and not 'die for the glory of the Alliance' under a hail of friendly fire. So yeah, I figure that counts as 'easy' these days. Hrm…kind of sorry state of affairs.

So, the war. We're going to Miami to support the allied forces there. They haven't outright said it, but I'm pretty sure it's on the current front line. You sort of have to read between the lines, but it sounds like Miami's been through a rough siege and is close to cracking. We're going in to do…something. They haven't been too clear on that part either. Shit, I hate it that they don't give us a full picture of our orders. I *hate* being a pawn.

So I figure the front line is consistent. That means that Venjix probably swallowed up most Mexico at some point, and that's *way* too close to home—and that's not even going into the other front lines in Russia and the Middle East. Does Russia even exist still? I can't quite articulate how…*angry* I am that they're censoring the news like this. The first sign people have to escape is the rolling thunder in the distance as the artillery units begin shelling the town. If they had just been honest with us from the start…god, just how many more people could have been saved?

But that's all part of the plan, right? The fewer survivors there are, the more room they have in those fancy high-class domed fortresses. Forget squalor or stretched supply lines, and all they had to do was sacrifice untold millions. Billions. It's criminal. It's goddamn criminal, and it's unacceptable. When we're done with this war, SPD better answer to their crimes-though I'm sure they'll just deflect and evade as always. It's the price you pay for having a mercenary force as your government.

My incoherent rage aside, the domes *are* pretty cool. We had a chance to fly over the one in Puerto Rico—well, what was left of it. Apparently they hadn't had time to raise their shields before Venjix moved in. No survivors. Still, we got a real good look at the ruins, and there is some *fine* engineering going on in there. I'm not an architect by any means, but even I can appreciate good use of a limited amount of land. The citadels are like, pocket metropolises. Like, take New York and remove all the suburbs and keep just the downtown. Then enclose it in a dome, with all the food production happening underground. It's like a Terra Venture-class colony ship, just earth-bound, and you don't have to worry about some way to simulate geological events, like oceans and volcanos. Not bad really, for a bunch of fancy archologies for them rich folks.

Too bad about Syracuse, though. Er…the Puerto Rican dome.

Miami, I'm told, doesn't have a dome. Weird, that, but then I figure there were strategic reasons for building (or not) in various places that I'm not privy too. Like that one citadel in the middle of north Saskatchewan. Thessaly, I think? Hell if I know what advantage building a domed fortress in the middle of the frozen northern plains could possibly yield, but like I said, I'm just a silly citizen ranger. What do I know?

We're arriving in Miami. Out transport has already had a near-miss from anti-aircraft fire. I better wrap this up.

* * *

><p><em>Green ranger, personal log<em>

Three days. Three days of hell.

As I'm writing this, we're hidden behind the lines in Miami, behind some makeshift walls we built out of some rubble and whatever we had on hand. Well, the new front lines—the original, better defended line front was overrun yesterday, forcing us back a couple miles. Really, I'm not sure how long this one'll last either; Venjix drones have been hammering us from the sky nonstop since we got here, and most of our anti-aircraft batteries have been systematically neutralized. There's another volley going off right now; and Venjix's own artillery batteries are helping out. They're softening us up for another ground assault. Hell, the only reason we're not out there right now is because we've been fighting for sixteen hours straight and they had to rotate us out. So now I'm just going to be sitting here for eight hours, unable to sleep from the barrage and the stress, waiting and dreading until I have to go out there again.

I'm going to die. We're all going to die.

The Aquatic Squadron rangers' shuttle got blown out of the sky as we arrived. No survivors. Another team, an SPD one I think, they all got slaughtered by larger ground machines. Big, hulking things, kind of like the monsters the Anthropods used to throw at us, but the guys here called them 'Generation 2's', I don't know why. What was Generation 1?

Hah, look at me, wondering about that as another shell takes out a building just down the street. Boom, it all goes down, and I'm back to worrying about dying. Because I am so going to die.

God, what am I even doing here. I'm just a kid from Alpine City. I shouldn't even be a ranger, I was brainwashed by a couple of rubber monsters—and now I'm alone, who knows if my family's even still alive. Mark and Drew might as well want me dead, and Zoe…Zoe's further gone than I am. The whole world is burning, and all I can do is sit here as everything goes up in flames around me with the light and shaking and thunder and all I can hear are the endless screaming over the shelling and oh god make it stop. Make it stop make it stop make it stop. I can't take it anymore.

I'm going to die, and there's nothing I can do. I can't run, I can't hide, I can't fight. Everyone's going to die, and it's because we weren't good enough. We're going to die.

Another shell just took out a church a few blocks down. It's dark out, and drizzling. Not that I've seen the sun in days anyway; it's just omnipresent cloud. It's as if we're being sealed off from the outside universe, trapped in our own private hell.

What is even going on.

God, this place is disgusting. There's debris and mud and garbage and…filth everywhere. The place is a goddamn ruin, and even the most basic of services are gone. Electricity? Gone, except for whatever generators we can bring in. Plumbing? Blown the hell up. Infrastructure? Man, the roads are nothing but ditches and barricades. I didn't pay attention much in world history class, but I do remember something about 'trench warfare' in World War I, about the awful living conditions, and I remember just thinking that 'sure, it's terrible, but I'll never have to deal with it'. I just remember thinking 'whatever'; it was just some far-away thing. And yet, here we are. Rats and mud and filth. I'd do just about anything for a warm shower and maybe a bed at this point. And an end to the shelling.

We own less than a third of the city now, and they just…keep…coming. They have infinite reserves, we have none. They just take the broken remains of the robots we cut down and rebuild them. They can take any raw materials and make more soldiers. It's only a matter of time. I can't keep doing this.

I wonder what my family's doing right now. Wonder what my mom made for dinner.

Wonder if they're even still alive.

* * *

><p><em>Yellow ranger, personal log<em>

We're running.

Sorry, 'retreating'. 'Tactical withdrawal'. 'Advance to the rear'. Whatever playful spin you'd like to throw in; we've sure done a lot of it. But at the end of the day, we're still evacuating what's left of Miami, and leaving most of SPD's equipment here. It was useless anyway, after it started getting hacked. Looks like Drew was right. And if we're getting hacked, so is everybody else.

Psh. 'Tactical withdrawal' still looks a hell of a lot like running away.

I watched another ranger team get murderfied down the block as we were loading up the last of the supplies we could grab into the command truck. A swarm of some big robot things came around the side of the building and just lay into them. More Gen 2's. Front lines were collapsing even before we started 'retreating'.

During my off hours I've just kind of shut out the world. Keep my helmet on, listen to some music, tune out the world as I just curl up under the barricade. Now I can't even do that, because if I do I'm dead.

I don't wanna play this game anymore. I wanna go home. And I can't, and it sucks, and the world sucks and I'm just so tired.

Maybe Ryan was right. Maybe I should have said something to my mom before I left. I just…I'm stubborn. And angry. And now I'm just so full of regret. When I get home, I'm giving my family the biggest goddamn hug they can imagine, and I'm never letting go. I'm also retiring from ranger duty, because to hell with this. With any of this. Just…hell with it.

It's funny. When my parents took me to Disney World when I was a little kid, Florida was green, almost tropical. Now it's this same battered wasteland I've seen since being dropped off in Mexico. Sure, every so often I see a group of trees that haven't been *completely* bombed out of existence, but I think that just makes it all the more sad. They won't last anyway; if another shell doesn't finish them off, then it'll be the lack of sun. It's been cloudy for way too long. I don't think we'll see the sun again.

I'm not scared, I think. I don't know what I feel. I don't know if I want to feel.

Mom.

God, mom, I'm so sorry. I should have told you. I should have…shit. Why didn't I tell you I was a ranger? Why did I think it was a smart idea to just…leave home without even saying goodbye? What have I done? God, I'm so sorry. As far as she knows, I'm dead in a ditch somewhere. If she's still alive.

I lied. I do feel. Nothing but sorrow and regret and rage. I see bodies everywhere; men and women and children. People who were just ordinary…people. People with lives and hobbies and jobs and…lives. They're all dead now. Miami is burning, the world is ending. I hate Venjix. I hate SPD. And I hate myself.

God, do I hate myself.

* * *

><p><em>Red ranger, personal log<em>

Reinforcements are incoming! Holy shit, it's the best news I have *ever* heard. The entire SPD Sixteenth Battlefleet is headed from Triforia to here, and will be here within the next few days. We just need to hold on a little bit longer, and it'll all be okay. They'll bomb those suckers from orbit, land troops on the ground, and save the world. The Earth is going to be okay. We're going to be okay. We have a unified universe behind us. Galaxies upon galaxies of friends and allies. We have over a dozen colonies, including Mirinoi, one of the biggest member worlds in local space. Earth has been a center of light in this universe for over a century. We've built up so much goodwill and friendship. They won't let us fall.

We're headed toward Nashville. Apparently we're giving up a lot of territory so we can dig in better. The plan isn't to win anymore; it's just to hold out until reinforcements arrive. We finally got a good look at the worldwide situation during our last brief. Europe's gone, just…gone. Venjix hit the Urals, and with most of Russia's infrastructure out of the way it's just been swarming across Siberia, and down into central Asia. Most of the Middle East is gone, though there are a few dedicated pockets of resistance, but for the most part Venjix is piling on into India. They're holding for the moment, but I doubt they can for long. The situation in the Americas is…not great. Mexico is gone; the current front line is cut like a bow across the southern US. The north is getting hit hard too; Venjix is pulling over the arctic and hitting Canada from the rear.

So, that mostly leaves us Pacific countries. China, America, Canada, Australia, Japan, what's left of Russia…etc. The world's going to be pretty empty once this is all over, and that's not even going into the sheer devastation of the planet. I'm not anywhere close to being a scientist or knowing about that shit, but like…the planet wasn't doing so hot before this war, but now with all the pollution and the wiping out of everything into a barren wasteland...could we need to evacuate? Found a new colony world?

Anyway, nothing will ever be the same again. At the very least, the economy is screwed.

I keep telling myself I'm going to get my team out of this alive. For awhile there I didn't really believe it. But man, with reinforcements. Everything's going to be okay. Post war, things might be touch and go for awhile and I bet we're going to be up to our necks in work rebuilding everything, but we're going to live. We're going to be okay.

I have to resist the urge to just laugh. We're going to live! A few more days, and then this war is ours.

We're going to live!

* * *

><p><em>Green ranger, personal log<em>

After Miami, Nashville is a godsend. There's noise of course; distant cannon, the sounds of frantic building as we're getting ready for the next assault, but for the most part? Blissful quiet. Not that every loud noise doesn't make me jump though.

It's the first day we've had off since before the war started. I mean, there's not exactly much to do; we're a bunch of broke high school students in a city that's been evacuated and boarded up. But man, I don't care. I'm not in the middle of constant shelling, I'm not running for my life, I'm not cutting down hostile robots with my sword. I slept in this morning. The infrastructure's still kind of hodgepodge; Nashville's seen its fair share of air raids and missile fire, but the military's building themselves a nice front base, so we're doing okay. Plumbing-you don't miss hot showers until you lose them, food, cots, and for the first time in forever a wifi signal. I can check the news!

Ugh. Every time there's a loud, sudden noise, I just kinda react, like something's about to hit. Like it's suddenly Miami again. Woke me last night when a troop transport drove by. It took the others a few minutes to convince me we weren't under attack. Feel kinda stupid about that.

Looks like the cat's finally out of the bag by the way; the news sources are finally reporting about the severity of the war. They couldn't really continue to hide it here after they started taking places like Miami and Dallas. But they're still able to spin it as a positive because of the reinforcements, so there's that.

…Speaking of, that's what worries me. The last few nights, there's been meteor showers outside of town. Remember that the sky is cloudy, so that means we only see them as they impact. No one's said what they are, just 'junk'. There's rumors they're the debris from an orbital battle. But Venjix doesn't have any space forces, unless he took control of the orbital defense grid too. And that worries me, because that means there's a good chance the fleet wouldn't see it coming. And that means the falling stars make sense.

No one's said anything about the fleet's location since the meteors started falling. They were supposed to be here by now. Whenever I ask an SPD superior, they just kind of deflect. It's getting bad too; as Venjix crawls closer, the US army contingents here with us are getting twitchy. They were expecting the cavalry to be coming. What happens if they don't show? What will SPD do if they *did* lose an entire fleet of warships?

An SPD battlefleet consists of over three hundred ships of various purpose and size. That's no small feat of engineering and firepower. Take for instance, that SPD -the Alliance that is—, has about twenty-two fleets, a larger number than any other major power in the local supercluster, except for maybe the Neo-Machine Empire. So the loss of one of those, responsible for the protection of a large region of space, is nothing to sniff at.

Heh, lookit me, bein' all smart. Some of Drew's finally starting to rub off on me. I wanted to know more about our situation, so I started asking him during our trip up here. They've really eased off as of late, I don't know if they're finally warming up to me, or if they're just too exhausted by the war, but I've been having more conversations with them, ones that don't just end in 'shut up, new guy'.

I know I can never really make up for the shit I put them through while I was under the Anthropod's spell, but I'm glad they're allowing me to move on with my life anyway.

Not that there's much of a life left. We made it out of Miami, but I don't think there's going to be many places to escape to for very long. I can already hear a bit of thunder on the horizon, and I don't think help is coming. And I think the others are all on the same page as me, even if none of us have actually said anything. Maybe if we don't, we can keep pretending? Maybe it was just a meteor shower, and maybe the fleet just got delayed. Or maybe that was them blowing the orbital defense grid out of the sky.

I hope.

* * *

><p><em>Blue ranger, personal log<em>

Bastards. Bastards, all of them! Those goddamn cowards are pulling out! I knew they couldn't be trusted!

They got the order about an hour ago, right in the middle of the goddamn siege, and they're just…*leaving* us! How do you do that?! You sent us here, and now you're abandoning us!? And you're just going to leave Earth, after everything we've done!? We deserve better than this! GODDAMN COWARDS!

I hope every member world of the Alliance is watching this. I hope Triforia, Aquitar, KO-35, New Edenoi, all of them. I hope they're all watching this, watching as SPD left Earth to die. I hope Mirinoi and all of our other colonies are watching this, and know that SPD deemed their homeworld not worth saving. I hope they have a full blown goddamn revolution on their hands! I want blood! Not that I'll be around to see it.

They're shooting down any ship that tries to leave the planet too; don't want to risk Venjix spreading offworld. They're destroying their equipment to keep Venjix from getting its hands on it, and then they're bringing in 'clean' transports to get their people out. Most of the offworlders had the good sense to get out a long time ago, but now our protectors are leaving too.

Cowards, all of them.

Okay, so, basically. The Sixteenth Battlegroup got caught out of position when they came out of hyperrush by the orbital defense systems. Y'know, the stuff we set up like, half a century ago to prevent a repeat of 1998, or 2052. As far as anyone knew, it was still 'clean', but as soon as the Alliance fleet dropped in, Venjix hijacked the entire network. It was a goddamn trap, and one enacted only because WE GAVE IT THE GODDAMN ACCESS CODES.

I'm an idiot.

So anyway, the SPD reinforcements are blown out of the sky in under an hour. The debris rains down over the course of the next three days, and they keep the whole thing very hush-hush. SPD's very good at that. Then, SPD command back on Aquila Prime decides we're not worth the trouble, and that Earth is to be quarantined to prevent offworld spread—apparently somebody brought something offworld and got the colony on Orion 7 infected. They didn't outright say what happened to them, but I'm pretty sure they just lobbed a couple nukes at them. Yay, defenders of the universe.

God, I hope they get everything they've got coming to them.

So now they're just packing up and leaving. And the best part? To do that they had to have taken out at least part of the orbital defenses, which means there's another fleet up there. They brought the reinforcements needed to win this war, and they won't help. They're just…leaving us. And destroying everything of theirs that they can't take—no, don't leave it here for the people you're LEAVING TO DIE. Not if there's a remote chance it's infected! Golly gee, no!

Mark's decided we're all pulling out too, making a beeline for Alpine City, before Nashville falls and we're trapped here. Resistance without SPD is already collapsing, so we'll just grab the zords from the holding bay and get the hell out. I can't say I disagree with that. We're all dead anyway, but I'd rather die fighting defending my hometown and my family. I just hope we can get there in time.

It's weird. I thought I'd be more afraid to die. Maybe it just hasn't sunk in yet.

I'm just so angry. So very angry. SPD can go rot in hell.

Everything sucks.

* * *

><p><em>Yellow ranger, personal log<em>

We're running. Again. Nashville is falling, and since SPD left, it sounds like the rest of the planet is falling too. Signals are hard to come by, we're only getting news in short random bits, but from the sound of it, it's not good. The United Nations—or what's left of it after Venjix murdered most of the General Assembly and the Security Council, anyway, is advising that everyone head for the nearest domed city. Everyone on the eastern side of the US should head for Corinth City.

But we're not going that way. Not yet. We're headed for Alpine City, where we hope to hold the line long enough for everyone to evacuate. And then? Well, Drew says the nearest dome from there is in Seattle. 'Byzantium'. Weird name.

The news is also reporting which domes didn't make it. Venjix is pretty good at hitting cities before they get their shields up, apparently. Athens, in Angel Grove is gone. Megara, in Israel, also gone. Elis, in Russia. And of course the dozens in Europe, Africa, and South America didn't have a chance since Venjix took those down in one fell swoop.

Ugh.

But we're going home. I'm coming, mom. I'm never going to let you go again. Not ever.

We're going to survive this. We'll get everyone from the city, and take them to Byzantium. It's going to be okay.

* * *

><p><em>Red ranger, personal log<em>

Drew managed to pick up an SPD database before we left, before they destroyed it. Sometimes the little asshole comes in handy. There was some interesting stuff on there. Current theory on Venjix, by the way, is that it was a project by a rogue branch of either the United Nations or one of its member nations. The Alliance knew the UN had been becoming more and more anti-SPD and were gathering technology and resources under its own umbrella. I guess one of their guys got trigger happy. In which case, we kind of destroyed ourselves, huh?

Heh. Every sci-fi movie ever was right. Humanity's hubris and lust for power did us in after all. Is it any surprise SPD pulled out? We weren't worth the trouble. What a joke.

Not much else to say right now; we're currently somewhere in Arkansas, staying just ahead of the enemy vanguard. Not that you can tell; everything's blasted out and wilting anyway. We had a couple of run-ins with scouting parties, but with our zords they haven't really been a threat. We're one-shotting this, no stops. We're driving to Alpine City in one go, we're making sure everyone is ready to move out, and we're headed to Byzantium. That's the plan.

…God save us.


	6. Homeward

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER SIX: HOMEWARD**

"Scenic Kansas. You can hardly even tell this place has been bombed to hell and back".

"Hey, Drew?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up".

Four large beetle machines made their trek across the open plains of the American Midwest, two on the ground and two in the air. It had been half a day since leaving Nashville, and aside from the occasional Venjix patrol (which, having zords, that didn't matter much), absolutely nothing had happened.

Absolutely nothing.

And like all long car trips, everyone was just about ready to kill one another. It also didn't help that they were all trying to deal with the stress of, well, the End of All Things. After listening to Drew and Mark lay into each other for the five hundredth time, Zoe had jokingly suggested showtunes. No one had been amused, and shortly after the yellow ranger had gone radio silent, preferring the silent madness of her own isolation to the constant whining from the red and blue rangers. And it was only going to get worse now that it was starting to get dark; there hadn't been much to see even in the daylight, but at night there was nothing at all.

"I think I liked it better when we had stuff to do. Like getting shot at".

"Hey, Drew?" it was Ryan this time, instead of Mark.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up".

Drew scowled, "Hey new guy, you don't get to—"

"Hey, Drew?" back to Mark.

"…Yeah?"

"Shut up".

Drew sighed and lay back in his seat. A few moments of silence passed before Ryan spoke up again, "…Does anyone have a bad nagging suspicion? We haven't seen anything in hours. No military, no refugees, no inhabited towns…"

"It *is* the wide open expanse of Kansas. …I think it's Kansas. Might be Oklahoma" Drew replied, mulling it over in his head, "Anyway, low population density. Nothing but farms. Well, shelled out remains of farms".

"We could be the only people on the planet for all we know" Ryan muttered.

"Aaah, don't do that" said Drew, very much creeped out by the whole notion, "That's bad".

Mark sighed, "We can't even get a signal anymore. At least near Nashville we could get radio signals and some sort of news. Now, nothing".

"…I hate being kept in the dark" Ryan said quietly.

"Me too" Drew sighed.

Mark nodded after a brief moment, "Me too".

The three rangers were quiet for another moment, letting it all sink in as the last bits of ambient light gave way to darkened blackness. For all their fights, for all their struggles and issues and squabbles, they were still a team. Still in it together, for better or worse.

"Guys" It was Zoe, she had evidently turned her radio back on, "Look"

The sky was suddenly illuminated by numerous balls of light in the distance, all in evenly spaced intervals from one another, each reaching up into the sky, propelled by pillars of smoke. A brief glance at his computer terminal told Drew what he already knew.

"Nukes" he said, monotone, "Nuclear missiles".

"The US military must be emptying its stockpiles. Last ditch effort?" asked Mark, no discernible emotion in his voice.

"Or maybe Venjix just took over and is wiping us all out. It might be happening worldwide" Ryan said, keeping his eyes on the lights as they escaped the cloud layer, returning the land to night.

"Which do you think?" Zoe asked, looking at Drew.

The blue ranger felt everyone's eyes land on him, even behind their helmets. "…Does it matter?" he asked at last, making a point to not glance back at anyone.

No one said anything in response, and soon the eyes went back to staring out into the empty abyss outside. No, perhaps it didn't matter.

Drew took another look at his zord's sensors and frowned. A moment ago it had been filled with energy signatures from the missile launches, but now…now it was still filled with energy signatures. Different ones. Bad ones. His eyes widened in realization.

"Guys, we got income—" the blue ranger's zord shuttered from the impact from a blast, cutting his words off.

Thankfully, Mark took quick charge of the situation, "Game-time, rangers! All units, target opposing forces and fire!"

The four zords made a sudden about face, opening up a barrage of laser fire on their opponents. They soon found themselves surrounded; they had somehow fallen into a large contingent of Venjix forces. On top of numerous jet craft and hoppers, a number of zord-sized Generation two's formed a solid core for the enemy battalion, each unique in design. From Mark's vantage point, he could make out a buzzsaw-like metallic monster, a hammer-themed beast, a walking world-war one tank, a jetcraft monster, and some sort of humanoid construction vehicle. This was not good.

"…This isn't a scouting patrol" Mark said in realization, "This was a planned assault. They were looking for us".

"Plan?" asked Zoe as her machine shook violently, "'Cause I'm totally open here!"

Ryan said nothing. He was too busy trying not to freak the hell out at the incoming firepower. His zord shook, and suddenly he was back in Miami. He hated Miami.

Blue and red huddled against the ground, withstanding the barrage of weapons fire from all direction, using their shells to repel the assault as they returned fire from their multitude of guns. Yellow and green flew overhead, strafing the ground monsters as they could, while still dealing with the overwhelming number of drones in the sky. Even working together though, the zords were taking a beating and wouldn't be in fighting shape for very long.

"Megazord!" Mark replied, struggling to stay in his seat as his zord took another heavy hit, "Insectimax Megazord!"

Immediately the three main zords began to shift and transform into the Megazord. As it was completed, the green Atlas zord split apart and formed a suit of armor for it, creating covers for the legs, fists, chest, shoulders, and a new crest for a head. A tremendous surge of energy erupted around the new mechanical war machine, creating a shockwave that incinerated a number of incoming drone craft. The Insectimax grabbed its staff and swung it around into a battle ready position.

"Too bad we didn't bring the auxiliary zords with us" Ryan said after each of them had been transported to the central cockpit, "Really could have used them here".

Mark's attention remained solely on the army in front of them, "We make do with what we have. Rangers, move out!"

The hammer and saw bots struck first, swinging their weaponized arms down on the Megazord, which blocked both attacks by bringing its staff up. It then pushed the arms aside, allowing it to swing again and cut deep blows into the monsters. As they stumbled back, the tank and jet monsters came to the fore from the sides, opening up a barrage of gunfire and ripped into the Megazord, creating a shower of sparks.

"Shoulder cannons, online!" Ryan shouted over the chaos of the cockpit. Twin emerald guns folded out from the back of the zord, flipping out onto the shoulders and returning fire on the two monsters on its flanks. The Megazord gripped its staff and swung up from the ground, slicing into the hammer monster, before spinning around to take down the construction bot with a downward swing.

Just then, the buzzsaw monster grabbed the Megazord from the rear, pinning the zord's arms down as a number of air drones flanked in on a collision course, slamming into the robot one after the other. The Megazord's chest exploded as it was flung back into the ground, skidding to a stop over half a mile away. It struggled to stand back up after landing, its ruined chest and abdomen sparking.

"Defense shields are offline!" screamed Zoe, after shielding her face from an eruption from her console. The entire cockpit was shot; wires were dropping everywhere as chunks of debris scattered. Computer consoles were sparking and fading in and out of operation. Alarms were going off.

"I've got heavy damage reports to our frontal superstructure!"

"Main power generators have overloaded! We're at sixty percent efficiency!"

"Come on, get *UP*!" Mark grunted, pulling on his controls until the Megazord staggered back to its feet. They had to get up. They *had* to. He managed it just in time; the rest of the air drones were incoming.

"Here they come again!" Ryan shouted.

"VORTEX FINISHER!" Mark commanded. The Megazord grabbed its staff and held it out in front of its damaged body. It began to spin its fist rapidly, until a tornado of multicolored energy emerged, engulfing the enemy fighters and destroying them instantly.

"FINAL STRIKE!" the rangers commanded in unison. The staff was raised up, now fully charged, before allowing it to be swung back down. A beam of brilliant light cut down into the body of the construction monster, and it exploded in a rain of fire and smoke.

"YEAH!" Zoe pumped her fist into the air in triumph, "Take that you ugly sons of bitches!"

Mark cautioned, "Careful, we're still outnumbered four to—"

The Megazord was struck from behind twice by the saw monster, which had somehow encircled the rangers while they had been preoccupied. They turned around, blocking another hit with the left arm before returning the favor with a solid punch from the right into the robot's face.

"We got this!" Mark shouted, "We can *do* this! Come on, rangers! FINAL STRIKE!" The Megazord swung down, and another monster was vaporized. It turned just as the remaining three monsters approached.

"FINAL STRIKE!"

Nothing happened.

"Power reserves are empty! Generators are maxed out. We can't use that many finishers in a row!" Drew exclaimed, going over the readings on his console. Maybe there was something he was missing. Maybe he could tap into—

The Megazord's failed attack left it open for the tank, jet, and hammer monsters to swarm it. It raised its staff in defense, but the jet monster simply snapped it in half, allowing the remains of the weapon to fall to the ground before smashing its head into the Megazord's already-damaged chestplate.

"Primary weapons are gone!" yelled Zoe.

"No shit!" Drew replied, grabbing hold of his chair as another blow struck the Megazord. It was clear the team was starting to panic.

"Activating cannons!" Ryan yelled, messing with a number of the controls, and hoping to god the same trick would work twice. Instead however, his console overloaded and exploded in front of him. "…Secondary weapons offline!"

"We got nothing left!" shouted Drew, "This ship is goin' down!"

As the monsters grabbed onto the Megazord, the jet monster swung its arm blades up and down like a pair of scissors, cleanly severing the zord's right arm from its body, before cutting down across its abdomen. The robots grunted in glee as they tossed the Megazord aside onto the ground, its husk still sparking and smoking.

"We gotta abandon ship" Mark said, unstrapping from his seat. No emotion, no inkling of feeling. Right now there was just the commander. The red ranger's team was in danger, and he was going to save them.

"How?" asked Zoe, "They'll spot us as soon as we try to escape".

Drew thought for a moment, "…I have an idea"

All eyes turned to the blue ranger. He continued after a short sigh, "…We keep them busy while we evacuate, one by one, on our bikes".

"So who stays behind?" asked Mark. He had a sneaking suspicion where this was going, but he'd let Drew play this out.

Drew looked directly at him, "I do. I know these systems better than anybody. I can keep this thing afloat and have the best chance of escaping".

The two rangers studied the other for the briefest of moments, before Mark nodded, "Do it. Ryan, you're up first. Then Zoe".

"Why me?" asked the green ranger.

"Just do what I say" Mark snapped. Ryan paused, as if debating or not whether to continue, but in the end simply got out of the room, heading for the launch bay. The remaining three monsters approached as the Megazord somehow found the strength to stand again.

"Do we have *anything* left!?" Mark demanded.

"Not a thing" replied Drew. He willed the Megazord to lunge at the enemy machines, swinging its severed arm as a weapon. Not one of the monsters noticed a small green light ejecting from the Megazord's backside.

"Ryan's away! Zoe, go!"

The yellow ranger nodded as she unstrapped herself and bolted out the door, heading deeper into the zord.

The severed right arm shattered as it was slammed into the tank's face. This allowed the jet to hit from the flank, cutting down the side of the zord. A yellow light ejected.

"That's two of four. Mark, go" Drew said as he got up to take Mark's place in the central cockpit seat.

The red ranger turned to Drew, "Captain goes down with the ship, dude".

Drew shook his head, pulling at Mark, "I know this thing better than you. Besides, you're a way better leader than I am. Don't fight me on this, Mark, please, just this once. You know I'm right".

The cockpit shook again as Mark debated with himself. He sighed, nodding and relenting, before unstrapping himself, "She's all yours".

Drew slid in where his leader had been just a second ago, "Get a far enough distance. When this thing goes, it'll go big".

The two rangers locked eyes one more time. One last time. They might have had their disagreements, but none of that seemed to matter now.

Mark spoke first, "It's been…well…an honor".

"Take care of them"

"I promise"

Another second passed and the cockpit shook again, seemingly bringing both rangers back to reality. "Coordinates for the domed city of Byzantium have been downloaded to your morphers. Good luck" said Drew.

"I think that's my line!" Mark replied, as he flew out the door in the back.

Drew chuckled, mostly to himself, as he gripped the controls. "Okay, you sons of bitches. Let's see how you like the equivalent of a tactical nuke rammed right down your throats! Computer, activate self-destruct sequence, authorization code Gamma-six-omega!"

"Authorization code acknowledged. Setting self-destruct for thirty seconds".

"Yee-haaaw!" Drew screamed as he slammed the Megazord into the tank monster.

* * *

><p>Mark pulled his bike up along Zoe and Drew, a fair distance away from the battle, though the titans could still be seen on the horizon thanks to their lights, waging a desperate battle for survival.<p>

"Where's Drew?" Zoe asked Mark. The red ranger said nothing, instead only looking back at the battle.

* * *

><p>"Self-destruct in 5…4…3…2…"<p>

The Megazord grabbed onto the tank.

Drew closed his eyes. So much he'd never get to do. Never graduate. Never get his team safely to Byzantium. Never have a girlfriend. Never go to college. Never see the end to that one movie series he really liked. Never play that game that was coming out next year. Never go to the grand canyon. Never get rich and famous. Never grow old.

Never sit in class again, never do stupid shit just to annoy his teachers. Never open his locker with the wonky number lock. Never wake up on a cold morning. Never come up with a convenient excuse to bow out of a class he didn't want to sit through. Never eat another pizza. Never mess with his computer. Never see his family again, his brothers and parents.

Drew exhaled.

* * *

><p>The Megazord went up like a roman candle, incinerating the entire group of monsters in one go.<p>

"DREW!" Zoe screamed in horrific realization, "NO! DREW! OH MY GOD! NO!"

Mark looked down at the ground, silent.

"You did this!" Zoe shouted, wheeling on the red ranger in utter rage, "You hated him! This is your fault!"

Mark winced, "…I never hated him. Bastard annoyed the hell out of me, but I never hated him".

"Then WHY?!"

Silence.

"WHY!?"

Mark sighed, hating himself, "…Because we are all expendable for the mission. He sacrificed himself so we could save our home"

"YOU SON OF A—" Zoe snapped and lunged at Mark, but Ryan kept her back—if just barely, "LET ME GO!"

"Calm down!" Ryan replied, "Please, just…calm down".

"HE DID THIS!"

"Please" his voice was quiet, drained, pleading.

Zoe glanced back at Ryan, her aggressive posture replaced by a poor kid whose emotional world was collapsing around her. Ryan grabbed her into a hug. Neither one said anything.

Mark looked back at where the battle had been, now only inky blackness. A shaky sigh escaped his lips as he turned back to his bike, "Come on. We still got a long journey to Alpine City. If we hurry we can get there by morning". He noticed he was shivering, even though his suit protected him from the winter climate that had become omnipresent.

The other two didn't budge, even as Mark hopped on his bike, "…Guys?"

No response.

"…Or maybe we can just rest for the night" he sighed.

* * *

><p>The rest of the trip back was uneventful, something that the remaining members of the team were incredibly thankful for. At one time they would have complained about the monotony of the endless wasteland that the center of the American continent had become. But not anymore. Each one would look up every so often to take stock of the others, not see Drew, and for a split second wonder where he had gone, before remembering.<p>

"…Oh, right" Zoe muttered to herself.

"What's up?" Mark called back from his position in front as they sped down the open road.

Zoe shook her head, "Nothing" she said, quietly.

Ryan spoke, "We're almost here. Just over the ridge there".

The three bikes drove over the hill, arriving on a bluff overlooking their home city. In times past, it had been one hell of a view—an ultra-modern skyline of tall fashionable buildings, flanked by snow-capped mountains in the distance, and surrounded by thick, green hilly forests.

Now, there was nothing. Dusty brown mountains towered over the blasted, barren landscape around them, the entire vista bleached and dead. The city itself, in the center, was little more than a collection of ruins and debris. Everyone's hopes crashed in unison.

"No…" Zoe whispered.

"I'm reading heavy radiation levels. One of the missiles landed near here" Ryan said, "I wouldn't recommend taking our helmets off".

Mark turned to the green ranger, "Couldn't have hit the city itself, it's still standing. Sorta".

"Drew could have explained it" Zoe said in a near whisper. The other two rangers fell silent.

After a moment, the green and yellow rangers were jolted out of their self-reflection by Mark, who gave a sudden roar, funneling all his anger and rage into kicking a rock off the cliff. The noise from his outburst echoed, before falling silent. There were no other sounds that followed, except for the wind.

"We failed"

Everyone turned to Zoe. "We failed" she repeated, her voice cracking. The yellow ranger plopped down next to the other two, crossing her arms over her knee and lowering her head. Ryan sat down next to her, saying nothing.

Mark stared at them for a moment. After a moment he began walking off, back toward his bike.

"Where are you going?" Ryan asked.

The red ranger stopped, "…I'm headed back to base. See if there's anything we can use. Information, hardware, anything. You guys join me when you're ready".

"Not even gonna stop to think about everyone who's no longer here, huh?" grumbled Zoe, "Just off to the next mission as usual".

Ryan caught sight of Mark's fists clenching. But instead of the expected blowup, the red ranger continued his walk, "Come get me when you're ready".

* * *

><p>The drive through the city was…sobering, to say the least. Everything was still somewhat recognizable, just as if he was going to school. Except, y'know, post-apocalyptic. Debris and abandoned burnt-out vehicles littered the streets…as did numerous corpses. People, burned alive—either by a Venjix attack or some effect from the nuke, he wasn't sure which. But then, if it had been a bomb, wouldn't the city not be standing in any way? Drew would have known.<p>

He missed Drew.

There was no sign of life anywhere. No people, no animals, not even a hint of green. There were no sounds in the air, no sign of activity anywhere. The world was dead, existing only as an oppressive bleached out brown still, blanketed by the omnipresent cloud cover.

The red ranger parked his bike just outside of the ruins of his school, not very far away from where he had boarded the SPD ship just a few weeks prior.

Had it really only been a scant few weeks? It felt like years now. Years of just…war. And when he had last been here, everything had still been…well, alive. Sure, the city had seen better days, but it was alive. People were here, plants were here. Now…nothing. And there would never be again.

"I left everyone to die" he said to himself, "I knew this would happen, and I went anyway. Drew was right". He was always right. The insufferable prick that he was, he was always right. About everything.

…Well, maybe not everything. Mark still wasn't sold about fluoride being used to indoctrinate children. Guess everybody had to be wrong sometime. The red ranger gave a waning smile for a brief moment as he re-lived that particular memory, before returning to the unfriendly truth—Drew was gone now too. Another casualty that he could have prevented. He had left Drew to die, just like everyone here in the city.

Zoe was right to hate him.

Mark pulled aside some debris as he entered the dilapidated building; making a beeline for the science lab they had once called HQ.

The lab was trashed as well, as he had expected. It seemed all the equipment was offline; damaged or destroyed, and he doubted the magic that had kept the base hidden from normal people was still functioning either, what with the door off its hinges and on the hallway floor. Not that it mattered anymore.

Wait.

Mark spun around as he heard a small noise. Something had moved. He reached for his blaster in his holster as he crept up on the source of the noise, somewhere in the corner of the room, behind the counter.

"…Mark?"

"Khepri?!"

The red ranger crouched down to the floor, pulling a shard of debris aside and grabbing the injured beetle creature from his hiding spot. "What…what happened?"

It was obvious Khepri was severely wounded; one of his legs was missing, his back shell was punctured in multiple places, and it was clear he had lost a large amount of blood. His voice was that of a whisper, barely there, and barely lucid, "The war came here. First, the raids. Then, a few days ago, the machine armies came, rounded up everyone they could find. I hid in here, alone. They never found me".

"So what happened? How did you get injured?"

"The raids. They leveled a good portion of the city. And then…the bomb. Not sure where it hit…or the size of the warhead, but it hit…it hit".

Khepri was starting to fade in and out of lucidity. Mark shook him gently, "Come on man, don't do this. Stay with me. You gotta stay with me. We'll get you out of this".

The beetle shook his head, or at least as much as his body could at this point, "Radiation" he said, smiling wanly, "I'm long past saving. There's…there's nothing for you here. Go. Take the others…and go. Hide. Be…safe…" he fell silent, limp.

"…Khepri? Come on man. Khepri?!" Mark shook him harder. Nothing.

Nothing.

The red ranger set his mentor back down in his makeshift nest of dirt and wreckage, and just sat there, watching his body. The tears came slowly at first, but before he could even do anything, the dam burst, and the red ranger sat, crying. Weeping. Mourning.

It was funny. He hadn't really felt anything but rage when the other ranger teams died. When Drew died, he was sad, but managed to keep it together. And he supposed the fact that his entire family was dead just hadn't sunk in, instead just being an abstract concept right now. But this…Khepri was dead. He was gone.

God*damnit*.

Mark leaned against the center table and just let it all flow out of him, staying in that spot for quite a while.

* * *

><p>Zoe made her way down her home street, watching out at each of the eviscerated, empty, lifeless houses. She grew up on this street. She was born here, played games here, made friends here. She knew every person who lived here. All of them, dead now.<p>

"Are you okay?" asked Ryan, somewhat behind her. He hadn't said much, for which she was thankful.

"No" she replied softly. Her eyes turned towards her own house, just as much of a broken derelict as any of the other buildings here, "I…I don't think I ever will be again".

Ryan approached her. A hand on her shoulder quickly found its way into becoming another hug, "I should have listened to you. I never should have left without telling her I was sorry" Zoe said, as tears began to trickle down her face inside the helmet. Even Ryan could tell, just by her voice, "I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot and a fool and I didn't deserve her or Drew or you or anyone because I'm just a selfish idiot fool and—"

Ryan cut her rambling off, "We all mess up" he said, earnestly, "We're only human".

"I never got to tell her. She only ever saw me as a disappointment. I never…I never got to tell…"

"I'm sorry".

The moment of mourning was interrupted by two figures who approached the rangers, stopping just a few feet away. Zoe and Ryan parted, making note of their new visitors. Both of their eyes widened in surprise…and danger.

"You!" Ryan growled in contempt.

* * *

><p>The message had been annoyingly vague, only providing coordinates and telling him that he needed to see this. Would it have killed Zoe to explain? It's not like their morphers had a texting limit or anything. Then again, it wasn't like she and him were on the best of terms right now. Weird, that—as soon as Drew was gone, it was like he had already found a new person to have a less-than-warm relationship with. He was terrible at this, apparently.<p>

The red ranger banked a turn on his bike, pulling into Zoe's neighborhood…or rather, what was left of it, destroyed like the rest of the city. Poor girl. He parked a few feet from the other two rangers and stepped off his vehicle, "Got your message".

"Find anything?" asked Ryan hopefully. Mark shook his head, "…Khepri?"

Mark looked down in shame, "Gone. I'm sorry".

Ryan tried not to show his disappointment too much, but generally failed at it, "…Well, I guess…I guess that was to be expected, huh?"

"So what's going on?" asked Mark, redirecting the conversation. He really didn't want to dwell on Khepri.

"Well, uh…" Zoe seemed uncertain as she bowed out of the way of the corner of the nearest house, "Them".

Two figures slide out from behind the house. Two very familiar figures. Mark's eyes widened as his combat instincts came into play. He grabbed his blaster and pointed it at Waspawn and Scorpiking.

"Woah, wait!" Ryan said, flinging himself in between the gun and its targets, "They're with us".

Mark glared at the green ranger from under his helmet. His voice was thick, full of tension, and venomous, "'With us'? I don't think so. So unless you want a face-full of laser, I suggest—"

"Mark"

The red ranger turned to Zoe. She shook her head, "Stop. He's right, they're with us".

"Explain. Now" Mark replied, putting his gun away—though reluctantly.

Instead of Zoe however, it was Scorpiking that replied, "We have nowhere else to go. The hive has been destroyed, we are all that remains".

"And how is that our problem?" asked Mark.

Zoe spoke up, her voice soft and compassionate, "…Mark. None of it matters now. Our battles, their schemes…the world is over. We all lost. We need to work together to survive".

The red ranger stared at his two longtime adversaries for a long moment. He didn't want anything to do with them, but…he was so tired of fighting. So, so tired.

"…Fine" he sighed at last, dejectedly looking away.

Zoe nodded, "Thank you" she said, though it was still unclear for either of them whether or not they were even still friends. Mark said nothing in return, instead heading back for his bike.

"So where are we headed?" asked Ryan, as he and Zoe began walking towards their vehicles as well.

"Byzantium" Mark replied, his voice a little more dedicated now, "And we're short on bikes, so you guys better be willing to double up with your new friends". Zoe and Waspawn, and Ryan and Scorpiking glanced at each other, a brief awkward moment passing between them before the rangers motioned to them to 'hop on'.

A minute later, three motorcycles and five beings, the last living beings left in this part of the world, left the remains of Alpine City forever. No one looked back.


	7. The Road to Byzantium

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER 7: THE ROAD TO BYZANTIUM**

The ambushes were really getting old. Every few hours another squad of Venjix drones would find them and engage, slowing them down and draining their energy. To Mark, the fact that so far none of them were giant sized was the only silver lining to anything. But at this rate, it'd be another day before they made it to Byzantium.

The red ranger sent a robot twirling through the air, allowing it to hit a rock wall and crumple to the ground.

"You know, I gotta say. I liked it better when it was just us bashing each other's heads in" Zoe grunted, as she pulled her fist out of another machine.

Waspawn spun around, throwing out knives strapped to her hands. The blades each hit their targets, cutting through them rapidly as she took out all of her opponents in a three hundred and sixty degree radius. "…Agreed".

The yellow ranger took note of her former adversary's position as she flipped a robot over, landing it on the ground before stomping on it. It was genuinely really friggin' weird that she was fighting side-by-side with the Anthropods, and that Waspawn was currently a handful of steps away from her. Had someone come up to her a month ago and told her this would be happening, and she'd have laughed you off in your face.

Then again, a month ago she was just a normal high school student who fought giant rubber monsters in her spare time. Not, y'know, a wartorn survivor of the apocalypse. The end of all things made for strange bedfellows.

Over on a nearby ledge she could see Ryan and Scorpiking back to back, holding their small bit of territory back against the overwhelming machine hoard. Mark was on his own on her other side, having combined his sidearms into a large blaster and was now in the process of punching a hole through to the rest of the group.

Every time she checked to see where everyone was, she had to remind herself not to look for the blue ranger. She always half expected to see him, blasting enemy foot soldiers with his pistol, or jumping into the melee with his blade. He had always been there to help her with the wisecracks in the middle of battle; the two worked well, taunting the enemy with clever little quips and bouncing off of each other with remarkable precision. But he was gone now. Nothing would fix that.

A sudden surge of anger spelled the end for an unfortunate drone that got caught by Zoe's sword. That was when she heard the scream. The yellow ranger spun around to the source of the noise, and watched as Waspawn dove in and took what looked to be a rather nasty hit from a Generation Two, for Scorpiking. Her onetime enemy collapsed to the ground in a cloud of dust as her target of protection charged up his twin back scorpion tails and promptly obliterated the offending robot.

"WASPAWN!" the general cried, kneeling where she had fallen. Zoe stood for a moment, wondering whether she was dead or not, before having to once again defend herself. She cut through her opponents and made for Waspawn's location—same as Mark. The rangers seemed to almost instinctively pull up a defensive perimeter around the two Anthropods, though none of them really understood why.

"Waspawn! Waspawn! Speak to me!" the scorpion said, shaking his companion gently. The injuries looked bad; a large black gash extended from her right breast down across her abdomen, and Zoe was already assuming the worst. She was somewhat surprised then, when Waspawn stirred. She looked at Scorpiking, her body obviously in a ton of pain.

"Don't…count me out…just yet" she managed to get out, to which her companion hugged her tightly.

"This is usually the time when someone's got a really great idea" Ryan muttered, having taken his attention off of the two lovers, and back to the swarm of robots surrounding them.

"Got one!" said Mark, having grabbed the team power cannon, "Everyone, DOWN!"

The red ranger braced for the kickback and let loose a powerful wave of red energy on the opposing force, making sure to cut a wide swath, using his weapon like a flamethrower. Zoe soon noticed he was struggling; the weapon wasn't meant to be discharged by a single ranger for so long; too much longer and he risked doing damage to his powers, or worse. Cautiously getting back up, she grabbed ahold of his shoulder, and a moment later the red energy was interspersed with yellow. Ryan soon followed her cue, and red and yellow were joined by green. Mark's struggle lessened.

Within moments, the entire battalion of Venjix soldiers were offline, sprawled across the ground and sparking. Mark collapsed to his knees, panting as the other two joined him, supporting their leader.

"We need to get out of here" Ryan said, "These 'patrols' are getting larger. Much larger".

Mark nodded, still a little shaky, "We're exhausting too much of our power like this. They're wearing us down, bit by bit".

"How far are we from Byzantium?" asked Zoe, her voice weary, and somewhat worried.

"Still a ways off. We're somewhere in Idaho…not that you could tell by looking at the place" Ryan glanced around at the barren, bleached wasteland they found themselves in, "Still hours away, even in a straight shot with no stops".

"This is ridiculous" said Mark. He slowly stood back up, his legs still a little weak—but the red ranger forced himself back up, even as he was slightly leaning on Zoe, "We're so close, but it's like they're blocking us at every turn".

Ryan thought for a moment, checking a readout on his morpher, "I don't *think* they're tracking us, otherwise all the other patrols out there would be after us. I think there's just so many of them".

"This far north" Zoe whispered somberly.

The red ranger looked away at the distance, his voice low, "When SPD pulled out, the local military forces probably collapsed completely. Likely Venjix has near full-run of the planet by now, give or take a few holdouts".

"Like Byzantium" said Ryan.

"We can hope" Mark replied.

Zoe looked back over where Scorpiking was still cradling Waspawn, speaking with her in hushed tones. The other two soon followed her gaze.

"How is she?" asked Mark, extremely business-like. It wasn't so much that he cared about the fallen Anthropod, more that he wondered how much dead weight she'd be from here on out.

"…I still function" Waspawn replied tersely, glaring back at the red ranger.

Mark continued, unabated, "Can you stand? We need to get out of here before another patrol decides to find out what happened to their buddies".

Scorpiking tilted his head towards Mark, then back at Waspawn, "She is unwell. We must find shelter, allow her to recuperate".

"We can't! If we stay here, they'll slaughter us" said Zoe, her voice alarmed.

"I will not leave her" Scorpiking replied simply.

Ryan sighed, his hand scratching the back of his neck, "Look, it *is* getting late. My scanners are telling me there's a cave network not far from here; we can get far enough away to keep the Venjix forces from finding us, and just…wait out the night, I guess".

Mark walked over to one of the downed drones, leaned over and grabbed its head, before ripping it off and standing back up. He looked it over, as if searching for something, before glancing back at Ryan and the others. He nodded, "Fine. Maybe I can gather some intel from their drones while we're at it".

Zoe sighed, clearly outvoted. Damn it.

Scorpiking was given Ryan's bike, which had a bit more room than the others, allowing Waspawn to sit in front of him while he drove. Ryan doubled up with Zoe on hers, and the group headed off at top speeds. A few miles, and they had arrived at their temporary destination.

* * *

><p>Night had come, once again. It was eerie, seeing nothing but black beyond the confines of the cave. The thick clouds blocked out the moon and stars, as they had for a long while. Zoe felt like seeing the night sky was in another life now. Combine that with no sign of civilization, and she couldn't even tell the difference between the ground and the sky.<p>

Not that the cave was well-lit either. They intentionally kept it dark, to keep Venjix's forces from finding them. That was her job right now: being the lookout. She had obviously long-since lost the ability to see anything physically due to night falling, so she used her morpher's scanners. So far, they were safe. A rather large group had come by the site of the battle a few hours ago, but with no leads they quickly dispersed, fanning out in all directions to find them. So far none of them had thought to look in the caves to the northwest.

…Did Venjix robots think? Like, independent thought?

"Hey"

Zoe turned, still sitting, towards Ryan, walking up to her.

"Shouldn't you be asleep?" she asked, returning to fiddling with her sensors, "Your watch isn't until…" she paused when she saw the time.

Ryan smirked, "Five AM?"

Zoe blinked, "I could have sworn it was still only about two-thirty".

"You didn't fall asleep, did you?" he asked, still joking but also somewhat concerned.

The yellow ranger shook her head, "No, been watching this the whole time" she yawned instinctively, "But now that you mention it…"

The green ranger smiled again, "You go get some sleep. I got the next shift".

Zoe nodded and stood up, stretching as she did so, "Ugh, this cave does nothing for my back" she grabbed her helmet off a small ledge and headed further into the cave, making sure to turn on her morpher's flashlight mode so she didn't trip.

They had set up shop around a bend in the cavern. The three bikes were online and illuminating the somewhat larger chamber. Ryan's bike's emergency pack had been taken from under his seat and given to Waspawn; the Anthropod currently lay on a green sleeping bag in the corner of the room, with her companion watching over her. In fact, Zoe could swear he was in the exact same position that she had left him.

"…Has he moved at all?" she whispered, kneeling down next to Mark. The red ranger was currently sitting cross legged next to his bike and fiddling with the robot head he had picked up earlier. Had he moved either?

He glanced back at the couple before resuming his work, "Probably not".

"How is she?"

Mark didn't even bother looking back at her this time, "Bad. I'm not one for medical stuff, but she's gotten worse since getting here. I don't think she's going to be going around much longer"

Zoe slid down next to him, placing one arm over her knee, her other leg outstretched as she leaned against the cave wall, "…Sucks" she said softly.

"Yeah".

"…Shouldn't you be asleep?" she asked.

Mark chuckled as he connected two wires, "Who sleeps anymore?"

Zoe chuckled back, "Fair enough. What are you doing, anyway?"

The wires sparked, causing the red ranger to recoil in mild pain, "Ah! Well…" he began fiddling with the machinery again, "I'm trying to reactivate the robot's hard drive, see if I can't gather some information on troop deployments".

"…You know how to do that?" Zoe asked, her eyebrow arched in surprise.

Mark shrugged, "Kinda? I dunno. I learned a few things from Khepri and Drew, but…this isn't exactly replacing RAM on my home PC" he paused, "Drew would know exactly how to do this".

"I miss him".

"…Me too".

Zoe sighed, composing herself, "I'm…sorry for lashing out earlier. I know it wasn't your fault he stayed behind".

Mark shook his head, "I'm the leader. It was my responsibility. I had the chance to order him out before me, and I didn't".

The two rangers were silent for a moment, Zoe looking back at Scorpiking's form in the far side of the cave. She didn't know them very well, aside from months upon months of an adversarial relationship. But somehow, that didn't matter now. He was just one more survivor, mourning just one more casualty. Just like them. Just like Drew.

"…Wouldn't reactivating the hard drive alert Venjix?" Zoe asked, changing the subject back to the robot.

Mark absently pointed to a metallic device with numerous severed wires sticking out of it a few inches away, "Not happening. Trust me".

The yellow ranger grinned, "You're better at this then you think".

Suddenly, the head activated, a holographic display emerging from the eye. Both stared at it for a moment, wide smiles growing over their faces, "Holy shit, I did it" Mark said. He immediately began pulling up information displays, "It's all here. Troop deployments, battle plans, tech specifications…this is…wait".

"What?"

Mark said nothing, instead digging deeper into the database. A few moments passed, with Zoe simply watching him with confusion, "What exactly is happening?"

Mark exhaled, slowing his frantic search. He leaned back, "That. Right there".

Zoe looked at the hologram. It was a…map? Yes, a map, of the Pacific Northwest. It showed troop deployments and…oh. Oh no. "…They're encircling Seattle".

"Byzantium" Mark nodded, "And it gets worse. Take at that panel over there".

Zoe's attention drifted to where Mark was pointing. Horror dawned, "…Oh my god. They have no idea the attack is coming".

"Venjix has been systematically liquidating their defense perimeter. And they haven't gotten the shields up yet" said Mark, "If Venjix attacks, they won't know what hit them".

"How long do they have?"

Mark shrugged, "I don't have a clue. But probably sooner rather than later".

"We need to get over there" Zoe said, looking Mark directly in the eyes. This wasn't a suggestion, a plea. This was an order. There was no alternative. This was what they were doing.

Mark looked back at the display, "…Yeah. Yeah, you're right" the red ranger stood up, taking a moment to stretch. He made his way over to Scorpiking, "Guys, we gotta go. How's she doing?"

Scorpiking made no moment. His response was monotone, empty, "She is gone".

Silence.

"…I'm sorry" Mark replied.

A large rumble shook the cave, causing some dust to fall from the ceiling.

"…What was that?" asked Zoe, looking around, and now very concerned.

"Guys!" Ryan shouted, running into the cave. He was slightly out of breath, but extremely panicky, "We got company! LOTS of company!"

Mark glanced back at the robot head laying in the dirt, "Guess I'm not as good as I would have hoped" he sighed, disappointed in himself. Another blast hit, stronger than the last.

"We gotta go!" Ryan shouted, a slight edge of panic to his voice. Mark scooped up his helmet, as did Zoe. She and Ryan hopped on their bikes, heading out of the cave. Mark followed, but stopped when he noticed Scorpiking still sitting where Waspawn lay.

"Scorpiking, we have to go. Now".

The monster's head turned slightly, but he remained sitting stoically where he was, "Go. Your friends need you".

"But—"

"Go. Now".

Mark lingered a moment longer, before turning back around and driving out of the cave.

* * *

><p>There was no escape; even in the extremely dim light of the early morning, Mark saw that immediately upon exiting the cave. The enemy troops hadn't yet completely scaled the rocky hillside that the cave's entrance lay on top of, but it wouldn't be long before they were neck-deep in robots. It was hard to tell exactly due to the time of night, but he could definitely see the lights on each unit's head, as well as the lights of the jets flying overhead.<p>

"This is bad" he said quietly. There was an entire battalion here. They weren't going to escape this.

Ryan had already charged up his sword, its blade aglow with a vibrant green light that illuminated the surrounding vicinity. He used it to swipe down at the cliff face, allowing for numerous chunks of rock to come tumbling down on their adversaries. Good thinking. Mark followed it up by taking out his blaster and blowing holes at the rock himself, resulting in more falling boulders.

Zoe grabbed her pistol and opened fire on the enemy directly, knocking them down one by one—but it wasn't fast enough. Rather quickly actually, the enemy drones closed in on the rangers, and before they knew it they were waist deep in melee combat.

"We gotta get out of here!" Zoe shouted, cutting down another enemy, "We can't take this entire force!"

Mark's sword cut through a robot's neck, severing the head from the body with a shower of sparks. He glanced around at the see of enemies he had to contend with. He hated to admit it, but Zoe was right. They weren't going to make it out of here. But somebody had to warn Byzantium. He had to—

No.

Mark saw Ryan go down with a cry, hit somewhere, he wasn't sure where. Zoe ran to his aid, somehow keeping the enemy off of her teammate.

No.

He slashed through another foe.

No.

Mark was the red ranger, the leader. His job was that of the defender, the person who everyone could depend on. His team needed him. One had already sacrificed himself so he could escape with his life. Not again. Never again. The red ranger cut through his opposition, forcing his way back to his two friends.

"Back inside the cave" he shouted sternly. Zoe recognized his tone as his 'Full Leader' mode.

"Why? We'll be trapped!" she said, pulling Ryan back to his feet. She swung his arm over her shoulders, supporting him. Mark noticed he had something of a limp, though his suit had also gained a rather nasty black burn slash across his torso.

"It's a network" Mark replied, "There's other exits". He cut down another enemy, "Now go!"

"What about you?!" Zoe exclaimed.

"I'll be covering you" Mark struck his charged up sidearm sword into the ground, causing numerous tendrils of red lightning to snake out in a fan, hitting the entire front line of troops, buying the red ranger a few precious moments of time as the robots fell back down the rock face. He turned to the green ranger, "Ryan, I tapped into the robot head I grabbed. Within twenty-four hours, Venjix will launch a major assault on Byzantium. They don't know, and they don't have the shields up. They won't know what hit them. You two have to make it to Seattle before that happens. Whatever happens, we have to complete our mission. We have to save them".

It dawned on Zoe, "…Mark. Drew…it wasn't your fault. Don't do this. You don't have to".

Mark noticed the robots climbing back up, "Time's up, Zoe. I'm sorry".

"But Mark—" Zoe pleaded.

"No buts. Ryan, take her and go. And be safe".

Ryan grounded himself, more stable than before. He nodded and pulled Zoe away, though she quickly began resisting, "NO! I WON'T LET YOU DO THIS! RYAN, LET GO!"

"I ALERTED VENJIX HERE!" Mark roared back, "THIS IS *MY* DOING! And now I am doing all I can to see that the two remaining people in my life make it to safety, and to make sure at least some population of people somewhere make it through this. Please, just GO! The more time you waste here, the less time I can keep them off you! GO!"

"NO!" Zoe was pulled away by Ryan by the arm, with her still looking back where the red ranger stood. He turned back around to the army in front of him.

"We need to go back and help him!" Zoe shouted furiously as she was led into the entrance of the cave, where Ryan had parked his bike. She wasn't being dragged anymore-really, Ryan wouldn't have been able to keep pulling her had she been dead-set against it, even from the start. On some subconscious level at least, she knew this was the right course of action. But that didn't mean she was exactly doing this willingly.

"You heard him" Ryan said, jumping on, "We have a job to do, and at least one of us needs to survive long enough to complete it" his voice was low, monotone. Any hint of emotion gone, just business. It was clear he didn't like this any more than her and that he knew just as well as Mark that this was the only option.

Zoe exhaled, nodding while holding back tears. She also knew that, she just didn't like to admit it. She hopped on his bike, behind him, hers already having been swallowed up by the roving hoards outside. Ryan started the vehicle up and they sped off, further into the cave. All Zoe could do was look back one last time as they rounded the bend.

All Ryan could do was not.

* * *

><p>The bike road up against where Scorpiking was still sitting, watching Waspawn's unmoving form.<p>

"We're getting out of here. If you're interested, you'd better follow" Ryan said, looking down on the scorpion monster. He locked eyes with the green ranger.

"Where is your leader?"

Zoe and Ryan glanced at each other, their shoulders slumping as they looked away again. Another blast shook the cave.

Scorpiking looked down the hall where they had come, seeing that none were following. He nodded in understanding, "Go. I will help your friend".

"It's suicide, you know" Ryan said simply. He rubbed his abdomen wound absently. It was starting to feel worse now that the initial shock was wearing off.

Scorpiking chuckled softly as he stood up, "My people are gone. My love is gone. My leader, my family, my culture, my entire way of life. I am a warrior of a cause that no longer exists. I have no reason to be".

"Then find a new reason" said Zoe, earnestness in her voice, though an undercurrent of emotional turmoil could be heard, "Otherwise her sacrifice was for nothing".

"I am a warrior. It is what I was bred for. It is what I am. An ant cannot be what it was not bred to do" the scorpion paused for a moment, thinking, "…I will assist your friend. Protect him until I cannot. Be on your way. Do what you must. Save your people".

With that, Scorpiking left the two, drawing his sword from its sheath and walking out of the cave. Ryan met Zoe's gaze once again. "…We'd better get out of here" he said, trying to ignore the pain in his abdomen.

"I…yeah" Zoe whispered, "Just…just go. Before I change my mind".

Ryan said nothing, but with a roar of the engine the two rangers headed deeper into the cave.

* * *

><p>Mark didn't remember how exactly he hit the ground. Maybe it was a hit from behind, maybe it was a lucky shot from one of the jets flying overhead. All he knew was, as the dim ambient morning light began to increase across the desert around him, he was on the ground, and he needed to get up before he was slaughtered. There was no way the others had escaped far enough yet.<p>

A hand reached down. A very familiar one. Mark looked up, and saw his one-time rival leaning over him, sword plunged into the dirt. He had beaten back the enemy for a moment. Time seemed to freeze for the red ranger, but with a firm grip, he met Scorpiking's hand with his own, and the Anthropod general pulled him to his feet.

"I believe you and I understand one another, general to general, do we not?"

Mark nodded firmly, understanding completely, a small smile forming under his helmet.

Scorpiking chortled, "Good. Then let us make sure your friends have their chance" he pulled his sword out of the ground and swung it into a battle position, "Today, you and I are sword brothers. May we die with honor".

"Let's kick some ass, hm?"

Scorpiking chuckled again, "Indeed".

The two warriors gripped their weapons, looked out over the endless battlefield with a thousand robot soldiers surrounding them on three sides. Mark inhaled, "For them" he said softly to himself, "For Drew".

A very brief moment of silence was cut by twin war cries, and the sounds of battle.


	8. End of Innocence

**CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE**

**CHAPTER 8: END OF INNOCENCE**

"Energy cells are completely dry".

Zoe kicked the black box currently lying in the dirt, hooked up to the stationary bike parked about two feet away. It made a slight 'ding', but otherwise was unresponsive to the yellow ranger's momentary fit of rage. She rubbed the back of her neck with her hand, calming down as she turned to Ryan. The green ranger sat on the ground, leaning against the shattered remains of a telephone pole. He had been getting considerably winded as time went on; and though he was trying his best to conceal it, Zoe had begun to notice. At any rate, for the moment she put it out of her mind, "We're going to have to make the rest of the trip on foot".

Ryan chuckled, "Of course it happens, just as we're almost there". He looked around at the barren wasteland around them, "…Hard to believe this used to all be forest".

Zoe sighed, looking back again at the bike, arms crossed in frustration. But, facts were facts, there wasn't any power left in the bike, which meant they were simply out of luck. "Can you walk?" she asked Ryan.

The green ranger scoffed, "Of course. What kind of question is…nrg…that?" he said, making an effort to stand. By the time he was upright again, he was noticeably breathing heavier, and still with the limp on the side with the torso wound.

"…Are you sure you're alright?" Zoe asked, concerned. He had been getting progressively worse as time went on. "What's happening to you?"

"Nothing" he waved her off when she tried to support him, instead willing himself to walk, "It's nothing, just a flesh wound" she rolled her eyes under her helmet, shaking her head, prompting him to continue, "It's fine, really. I'll get it checked out when we reach Byzantium anyway. Nothing we can do for it here".

Zoe sighed again, both of them now making their way to the city on foot, the bike becoming a distant reminder near the horizon, "You'd better be telling the truth".

Ryan checked his status on his morpher, frowned, and then pressed a few buttons—increasing the amount of energy being channeled into his body, as an effort both to keep himself going and to act as a makeshift painkiller. He couldn't try much more though; or he'd risk his morpher overloading, or rather…unfortunate effects on his body. But the 'treatment' was having less and less effect as time went on. He wasn't sure if it was his body adapting or the injury getting worse, but he had a pretty good feeling, especially now that the bike was dead, that his chances weren't too great. But for now, he had to do what he could to keep Zoe mentally intact, keep her on the mission, for as long as he was physically capable of it.

For Zoe's part, the yellow ranger found herself replaying the scene with Mark over and over in her head. She kept coming up with other things she could have said. Things she should have said, that would have meant that Mark would have been with them now. He was an idiot. She was an idiot. They had all been idiots. And now, out of the three of them who had started the journey of being a ranger months ago, only Zoe was still around. Well, Zoe and—

"…Ryan?" she asked, realizing his footsteps behind her had stopped and she was now walking alone. She turned around, and found the green ranger face-down in the dirt. The yellow ranger's eyes went wide behind her helmet, immediately fearing the worst. "Ryan, NO", she shouted, racing over to her remaining teammate's fallen body. Crouching down, she flipped him over. "Come on, come on" she whispered.

Still breathing. That's a good sign. Pulse too, but…well, fainter then it should have been. Not that she was a doctor or anything, but she had picked a few things up since becoming a ranger; sometimes field medicine was a necessity. Nobody could ask questions as long as you didn't go to the school nurse after all. She glanced around, looking for a good hiding spot, her attention quickly being drawn to a small cliff overhang surrounded by blasted out trees and some rocks. Perfect.

* * *

><p>The first thing Ryan noticed was that he wasn't still walking. The second thing he noticed was that his helmet was lying next to him.<p>

"…Wha…?" was all he managed to croak out, finding his body much weaker than he initially thought, and in a fair amount of pain.

"Welcome back" said a familiar, friendly voice. He managed to get himself into a sitting position, leaning against the rock wall, finding Zoe looking back at him. She too had removed her helmet; Ryan figured she must have checked the area for radiation.

"Hey" he grunted back, "What happened?"

Zoe's eyebrow arched, her arms folded over her chest where she sat. Her foot tapped the floor gently but intently. "I don't know. You tell me" she said, her voice even and controlled. Ryan knew he was in trouble.

"I'm fine" he said, looking away. He was a bit like a kid who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"You're not fine" she shot back, her voice low.

"I've got it under control. We just need to get to Byz—"

Zoe cut him off, "Stop lying".

Silence.

A sigh. She closed her eyes, her face down and away. "I checked your scan" she said quietly, after a pause to gather herself, "While you were asleep. You should have gone into shock hours ago".

He closed his eyes and sighed. The jig was up, "I told you, I had it under con—"

"The hell you did" Zoe's voice rose a little as she glared at him again. She fought off the temptation to brush away the water building in her eyes, "You've injected enough morphing energy into your body to power a Zord. I have no idea what that can do to your body, but…" she trailed off.

Ryan cracked a wry smile, still looking away, "Probably means kids are out of the question".

"I'm being serious!" she bit back, an expression of pure anger plastered on her face.

More silence.

"Tell me the truth".

"…I'm probably a goner" the green ranger said at last, expelling a breath of tension. Zoe's eyes closed, her nose inhaling, as if bracing herself a second too late. Ryan grunted, trying to find a more comfortable position, "From what I can gather from the graph, any more morphing energy and my body will just incinerate".

More silence.

Zoe's voice broke, "…Goddamnit, Ryan".

"I thought that , I don't know, maybe I'd be able to keep myself going until we got to Seattle, but I kept having to up the dosage. There's…not much more I can do". He still hadn't looked at Zoe. He didn't think he was capable of that right now.

She rubbed her hand through her hair, but said nothing. At first Ryan thought it was just more of the same tense, disappointed silence, but then he heard it, the quiet sobs, and it finally all started to crash down around him. The sheer immensity of everything, how completely screwed up things had gotten. He was going to die. Finally, and really. After being shot at so much, after the shelling in Miami and Nashville, when he thought it was the end, he thought he'd really be prepared for this moment.

As if you can prepare for inevitability.

"…Zoe?" he asked quietly, finally setting his eyes on her. Her head was down, resting on her arms which were wrapped around the tops of her knees. "…I'm sorry, Zoe" he absently felt the site of his wound—a rather easy job, considering the superficial damage to the suit. It was weird, it didn't hurt too bad; the morphing energy was still working as a decent painkiller, but the entirety of his body was still on fire—maybe a sign his body was burning up?

Zoe's head rose slightly, her face obscured by her hair, "Nothing mattered. You're dead, just like everybody else".

"That's not true".

"Isn't it?" Zoe shot back, her voice rising again. Her eyes met Ryan's, causing him to look away again. They were red and watery, streams coming down her cheeks. "Drew died to save us. Mark died to save us. And now you're gonna die. The Technowaves died to save a world that we let get destroyed anyway. We let our home town, or friends and families, to die so we could save the world, and we failed. Nothing matters".

Ryan fought back some tears of his own, "Stop it" he growled.

"Why?" she asked, "It's the truth!"

"No it's not!"

Silence loomed again as both glared each other down. Ryan had forced himself to look directly back at his teammate. He wasn't letting it go this time. Every other time he had always backed down; when he had tried to warn her about settling things with her mom when the war first started, or when he had tried to mediate things with Mark and Drew. Even Zoe, now, expected him to back down. He didn't.

He was just as surprised. His body was shaking a little; he wasn't sure if it was the stress or his body's condition. Regardless, he pressed on.

"Shit sucks" he said, not entirely knowing where he was going with this yet, "Shit sucks bad. You're right; it's the end of the world. Not much left to save. But we've known that for a long while".

A small, sad smile formed on Zoe's lips, "You're really bad at this pep-talk business".

Ryan's face echoed hers, "My *point* is, Drew and Mark didn't sacrifice themselves to save us. They sacrificed themselves so we could save others. Yeah, Alpine City was emptied out before we got there, but we don't know how many escaped. And Mark gave us a mission before he died. If we give up now, if *you* give up now, who's going to warn Byzantium?"

Ryan inhaled, steeling himself, "We're rangers. At the end of the day, our lives aren't what matter. What matters is how many we save, no matter what happens".

Another round of silence settled, but this one was notably less tense than the one before.

"…So what we want doesn't matter".

"I don't think we have that option anymore".

Zoe stood up and walked over to Ryan, sliding down next to him. "You know, I had thought about going into psychology".

"…When did this happen?" Ryan asked, surprised.

She shrugged, "A few weeks before the war. I had Mr. Miller's class. He is…was a pretty good teacher. Actually made me think all that mental stuff was pretty interesting. And like mom said, the chances of me being a rich and famous pop star were…not great".

"I never knew what I wanted to do" Ryan replied, thinking, "I was always just…putting it off. Something I told myself I'd figure out later".

"…Graduating week of college?"

"At least" Ryan said. Both of them exchanged a fit of laughter, before calming down, "…I always wondered what I'd have been good at".

"…I always thought you were a good writer" she said sheepishly.

"…The poems?" he asked, surprised again.

Zoe chuckled, "Oh, god no. Those were depressing and monotonous as hell. But you have talent. Had talent", she quickly corrected herself, her somewhat jovial attitude vanishing.

What would have been more awkward silence was cut off by a sudden convulsion across Ryan's body. He gasped in pain as his body betrayed itself. Zoe pulled back in shock, before grasping onto his shoulder, "Ryan. Ryan!" The green ranger collapsed to the ground, panting heavily in what appeared to be agony. Green wisps of energy coursed up and down his face.

"It's time" she said. There was no emotion in her voice, just a soft acceptance of the truth.

"Yeah" he replied quietly, "…Yeah".

Silence.

"…I had a crush on you, you know". Ryan grasped.

Zoe nodded sadly, "I know" she replied. She wiped away another bout of moisture in her eyes. "Known for a while".

"Oh…" Ryan seemed a little disappointed.

Zoe chuckled softly, "I didn't mean it like that. I just…I dunno. There was just a lot going on. I'm sorry".

"Yeah…"

"I had a bit of a crush on you too" she added. Even in the sheer amount of pain coursing through his body, Ryan still gave off an expression of relief…just before everything got worse.

"Ryan! RYAN!" Zoe watched in horror as his body began to collapse on itself, his morpher giving off warning lights. He grasped Zoe's hand with his own, summoning all his strength to look her right in the eyes.

"Save them" he managed to get out.

A moment of resolute certainty shone through the tears and pain as she nodded, "I will. I promise".

He nodded back, before collapsing back on the ground, limp and lifeless, his morpher's scanner having gone dead.

"Ryan" she mumbled, shaking his body, holding back the sorrow. "Ryan!" she shook him harder.

Silence.

This time, there would be no end to the silence, except for the muffled sounds of sobbing echoing through the cave-let. Of four rangers, only one still remained standing.

Zoe's morpher began beeping at her, getting her to check her own scanners—she was close enough now her sensors were able to pick up some of the machine forces heading north, towards Seattle. She wiped away her tears for the last time, her expression resolute. Cautiously, she reached for Ryan's chest shield, touching it gently, and allowing its power to flow from his body and into hers. The shield vanished in a flash of golden light, reappearing on her own body almost instantaneously. Zoe then grabbed his twin holstered sidearm blasters, taking a moment to transform them into their combined lance mode.

Finally, she touched the green ranger's belt buckle. His sword and shield combo appeared momentarily, before returning to light and flying into Zoe's belt. The yellow ranger took one last, long look at her friend's face, her fingers brushing down his cheek.

"Guess we'll never know where that crush would have gone" she whispered to herself, before standing up. "I'll make this up to you. All of you. I promise". Taking a deep breath, she grabbed her helmet, turned, and headed in the direction of Byzantium. Zoe began scanning her radio frequencies for any sort of contact with the city.

* * *

><p>"<em>This is the Domed City of Byzantium to any allied forces remaining; we are under attack. I repeat, we are under attack by hostile Venjix forces. Our shield generators were damaged during the initial assault, and we need time to get them back online. Please, to anyone…"<em>

Zoe looked out over the barren wasteland that had once been Seattle; only the fortress city of Byzantium remained standing, sitting on the Pacific coast, though even it had been obviously battered. Surrounding it were thousands upon thousands of machine troops and machines of war, all in formation and waiting for the command for the final assault. In the air, swarms of jet fighters massed overhead.

So, warning the city ahead of time was out. Go figure. Zoe gripped her lance in one hand, side blaster in the other as she marched directly toward the enemy army.

"This is the yellow Exoforce ranger, to all surviving human forces guarding Byzantium" Zoe started, her voice commanding, "Status on the shield generators. How long do you need?"

"…_Exoforce? Oh god, you have no idea how welcome your voice is. We think we can get the generators back online within the hour, but we need Venjix kept off our backs"._

Zoe surveyed the opposition, "An hour, huh? I can do that".

"_Thank you, Exoforce team. We cannot repay you for this"._

She smiled wanly, "Just the yellow ranger, I'm afraid. Just do me a favor and keep that door open for me, and give me whatever support you've got left".

"…_Just one ranger? Uh, roger that. Good luck, yellow. And godspeed"._

The machines had noticed her, and many were now on their way to crush the opposition. She braced herself, weapons at the ready. Behind them, she could see allied jets flying out from the city, preparing their bombing runs. And behind them, the city's artillery units had opened fire. This was for them. All of them.

She let loose a rage-fueled battle cry, channeling all of her anguish and frustration into her weapons.

She charged.

**-End-**


End file.
